


Special Interns Squad

by BadAtPennames



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Corporate Espionage, Interns & Internships, M/M, Pining, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:19:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 60,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadAtPennames/pseuds/BadAtPennames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi was content to go to work, do his job well, and maintain a fairly steady routine. Being placed in charge of a team of interns was not included in this list. It didn't help that Erwin kept giving them ludicrous assignments that no intern should be doing. Or that Hanji uses the interns to torment him. Or that one of his new subordinates seemed to be getting more and more attractive by the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I want to give a bazillion thanks to Uchiha_Riddle http://archiveofourown.org/users/Uchiha_Riddle/pseuds/Uchiha_Riddle, my beta for this fic. She has been so helpful and ridiculously quick. She also came up with the title, because titles are really hard.

“Levi,” Erwin said, standing in the doorway to his office.

Without a word the other man stood up from his desk and followed the blond inside the room.  While Erwin settled into the chair behind his desk, Levi elected to stand on the opposite side.  Not bothering to offer either of the two conspicuously empty chairs that Levi stood between, Erwin folded his arms across his chest.

“Two things: first, we have the group of interns coming in today.  I want you to personally oversee these three,” Erwin stated, handing a manila folder to his subordinate.  “Second, the union wants you fired.”

This caused the younger man to raise a brow.

“Do you know why?” Erwin asked.

Levi shrugged.

“They claim you’re taking away work from the janitors.”

“If this company employed competent janitors, there would be no issue with the union.”

Erwin moved to bring his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, realized what he was doing, and aborted by reaching for his mug of coffee instead.

“You were not hired to obsessively clean the office.  You were hired to-”

“I know what I was hired for.  My work does not suffer and I am your most efficient employee in this office.”

Erwin paused, the mug halfway to his mouth.

“Be that as it may, I don’t want to see you talking to, berating, or threatening any of the janitors.  I don’t want to see you within twenty feet of one.  If one comes into our office, I want you to control yourself until _after_ they have left _and then_ you can proof their work.  You are forbidden to go to other floors and clean.  Most importantly, when you _are_ cleaning, make sure you do it so that no one _sees_ you doing it.”

Levi chose not to comment on the fact that Erwin didn’t tell him _not_ to clean the office.  It would be like telling the ocean not to make waves. 

“I will make sure I am not seen.”

“Thank you,” Erwin said, bringing the mug to his lips and taking a sip.  The blond turned his attention to the screen of his computer in a nonverbal dismissal and Levi exited the office.

Pulling out his chair, Levi sat down at his desk and flipped open the folder Erwin had given him. Inside were three pages, each had a picture attached with a paperclip at the top left and a brief profile.  The first was an unsmiling young woman with blonde hair. 

“Leonhardt…” he muttered to himself, as he scanned the document.  She appeared to have a high aptitude for success.  She was also better suited to solo projects, apparently, according to a handwritten note in the margin.  Everything listed stated that she was both head and shoulders above the typical intern stock.  There was a small number four written in the top right hand corner of the sheet. 

The second page had a picture of a sandy-haired, brown-eyed man with a long shaped face.  According to his scores, his abilities were well-rounded with a couple of spikes where he was highly proficient.  He was also highly ranked; the number six penciled on the corner of his sheet confirmed that.  Although, he didn’t seem to have any skill that Leonhardt didn’t also possess. 

“Kirschtein… looks like a horse.”  Still, if Erwin had given him this young man, then he likely put most of his fellow interns to shame.

The last page was a dark haired young man with ridiculously intense eyes for a profile picture.  He wasn’t particularly remarkable based on his background information but the fact that he had been awarded an internship with the company spoke volumes.  They had several thousands of applicants to wade through every year and only a little more than a hundred were chosen.  To be able to put the company’s name on a resume almost guaranteed a well paying job once the fledglings went out into the real job market.

Levi looked back at the picture on the third page, “Jaeger… hm…”  Not particularly outstanding in most fields, but still placing high enough to be considered in the top ten for this year’s crop of interns, according to the number five on his page.  Levi glanced over the kid’s background information and saw there was a marked improvement from his initial placement scores a few years prior that his university had released, compared to the scores he had received when he had applied for this internship.  That indicated a hard worker, and from his picture, he certainly looked like someone who was very driven and determined.  Or like a serial killer.

Levi closed the folder and set it in the inbox on his desk, pushing it so the edges of the box and folder were flush.

“Levi!” a familiar voice called, which he ignored while signing back onto his computer and opening his e-mail.

Suddenly there was a chair dragged next to him from Mike’s desk across the aisle as a tall brunette threw herself into it.  Hange leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, a wide grin on her face.

“We’re getting new interns this afternoon!”

As far as Levi was concerned, this was no particular cause for celebration.  He supposed however, that if interns were directed to clean, he himself would not likely be seen cleaning. 

When Levi didn’t answer her, she leaned in conspiratorially, lowering her volume, but not the undertone of glee.

“I’ve heard Erwin assigned a particular group to you specifically.  Anyone that looks interesting?”  Her eyebrows stuttered up and down and Levi couldn’t tell if she was being lewd or if she was asking if any of them were genuinely interesting from a professional perspective.

“You were listening outside the office.”

“Well, yeah,” she said, without missing a beat.

“I’ll decide whether or not they’re interesting when I meet them.  Someone else’s evaluations mean little to me.”

She reached over to his inbox and plucked the folder from the tray, opening it up eagerly and flipping through the profiles.

“Yet you stared for a while at one of them…”

He wasn’t sure why she bothered asking him questions that she had already decided on an answer for herself.  She paused on the last page, and then held it up for him to see.

“This one!”

It was Eren Jaeger’s.  He didn’t bother to acknowledge her.

“You were looking at this one for several minutes.  Nothing particularly eye-catching at first glance except for his picture, of course.  You have to admit there’s something about him that’s quite arresting.  I think it’s the devil eyes.  Your type, perhaps?”

Levi was now certain her earlier question was lewd, after all.

“His stats are good, quite good, but not like this other one,” she tapped Annie Leonhardt’s picture.  “He’s ranked well, though.  I’ll bet he can be very _intense_.”

Her eyes literally sparkled on the last word and Levi wondered not for the first time why she had yet to be written up for sexual harassment.

He considered the pros and cons if he were to start documenting her for administrative action.  On the one hand, she was intelligent, hard working, and had the loyalty of the men and women she supervised, on the other, she was a nut job.

Hanji _was_ extremely talented and devoted, but once again, she was talented at being a nut job and devoted to being a nut job.

Also, she had made him her friend without his consent.  He was, for the record, unwilling.

“You know they’re sitting through orientation right now.  Want to go look at them?”

“They are not fish in an aquarium.”

“They might as well be.”

“They’ll be up in the afternoon.  I have other things to do.”

“You’re not allowed to scrub the bathroom floor.”

***

Eren sat in the lobby of the company that had been temporarily been converted into a meeting hall.  Metal folding chairs were arranged into rows and sectioned by aisles.  At the front a small stage had been brought in and assembled.  On top of the stage stood a podium with a microphone and behind that hung a projector screen.

Mikasa had seated herself next to him. 

Armin was on his other side. 

There was a time when Eren thought that childhood friendships didn’t last beyond childhood.  He’d thought that after high school, they would probably go their separate ways into different fields of study and have wildly different jobs and therefore, different lives. 

Except that he and Armin had similar dreams so it wasn’t too surprising when they both went for the same major.  When Mikasa followed after, Eren was disappointed that it wasn’t surprising.  She was like a dog that had followed him home and refused to leave.  Stubbornly loyal for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Whenever he thought that, he felt immediately guilty.  It was too accurate of an analogy.  Mikasa was not a pet, even though she had all of a dog’s qualities.  She was his adopted sister and just because she had more in common with canines than she did with other people did not change the fact that she was family.

Of course, he had met a number of people who considered their dogs full-fledged family members.

He looked around and saw that the seats were quickly filling up.  There was nervous anticipation humming over the crowd.  To be accepted for this internship wasn’t a small feat.  It was a huge opportunity.  A lot of the people here were probably looking to use this as a stepping stone to their dream jobs.  As far as Eren was concerned, this company was his dream job.

He intended to turn this internship into a full-time position. 

He just hoped the intern part was more than fetching coffee.

Eren watched as a man began climbing the steps up at the stage.  He was bald, mustachioed, and wearing a suit, but it was difficult to make out any other details from where Eren was sitting.  The man walked over to the podium and the susurrus from the crowd began to hush.  There was a moment or two where the man was speaking to a woman from off the stage before he turned to the microphone and flicked it on.

“Good morning interns and welcome to Klorva Industries!  I’m Dot Pixis-”

The man gave the typical introduction and short history of the company.  Eren was writing it off as the typical newcomer’s brief when the man took a turn for the slightly eccentric.  The sudden swig from a previously unnoticed flask gave the atmosphere a sudden shift towards surprise.

“I hate losing,” the man announced, “more than anything.”

Eren began to suspect that the man had been drunk before he set foot on the stage, but as he looked at the small group of full time personnel gathered off to the side, not a one of them looked remotely surprised.  Apparently, this was either expected, or the employees were required to go to seminars on perfecting their poker faces.

“This intern program has become a feeding ground for other companies.  They cherry pick the best and brightest from your group year after year.  They headhunt among our full time personnel-“

This was beginning to sound like paranoid rambling and the fidgeting in the crowd confirmed that he wasn’t the only one who thought so.  He glanced at the small group waiting by the stage again.  Although their facial expressions remained unchanged, their demeanor had somehow turned grim.

“This year’s interns are going to get more experience than any other company’s internship and for our more talented; we will be offering full time positions with competitive wages and benefits.”

The rest of the speech was lost on Eren after that last sentence.  This was the opportunity he had wanted and he was not going to waste it.

Pixis’ address was quickly wrapped up to somewhat jilted applause and a few other people took the podium in quick succession but were largely ignored by Eren.  Eventually a woman with chin length hair and glasses took the stand.  The projector screen behind her flickered to a new image with several different rectangles in various colors and a floor number and department name attached to each.

“If you will open up your orientation packets you will notice on the upper left hand corner a color bar.  It will tell you where to report next.  For instance, color group green will report to the twenty second floor, Marketing and Sales Department.  Please proceed to your assigned locations at once.”

Eren looked down at his to see a brown bar.  The screen listed thirtieth floor, but no department name.  His brow furrowed as he glanced over at Armin’s.  It was blue.  He looked up and saw it was for the wing attached to the main building they were currently in, Research and Development.  Mikasa’s was red, thirtieth floor, Operations.  He wasn’t sure if that meant he was in some subdivision of Operations or not.  He quickly jotted down the floor number and stood up.

“I guess we’ll be seeing you later,” he said as he gave Armin’s shoulder a brief pat.  Mikasa nodded wordlessly and they stood up and headed for the elevators.  There were a few people who apparently didn’t want to wait for the crowd to slowly leak out through the lift boxes and headed towards the stairwell.  If Eren didn’t have thirty floors to climb, he probably would have done the same.

“I’m glad we’ll be on the same floor,” Mikasa murmured. 

“Yeah, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be doing the same thing,” he said, gesturing to his brown bar, as if the color itself indicated miles of separation.

Mikasa was unfazed.

It was fifteen minutes later of jostling and mumbled apologies before they made it into an elevator car.  Eren scanned over the numbers on the side to see that nearly every floor between the first and the thirtieth were lit up.  He felt a flash of annoyance at whoever it was that felt the need to wait so long in the lobby just to push a button one floor up from where they currently were.

It was another eight minutes before they reached their floor between people trying to shift their way in and out of the elevator.  They stepped out in what appeared to be a large waiting room with a pretty blonde receptionist seated at a desk that barred the door into a larger office area.  A crowd of people were already there.  At the head of the group a woman with dark hair gathered into blue ties on either side of her collarbone held a sheet of red construction paper up.

“Red group over here,” she was calling and most of the people seemed to gravitate towards her.  Mikasa wordlessly stalked over, leaving Eren to hover a few feet away from the elevator doors.  There was probably another fifteen minutes of waiting as more people filed out of the elevators periodically until finally the trickle of interns onto the floor seemed to stop. 

The woman with the red construction paper walked over to the receptionist.

“Miss Reiss, could you please direct any stragglers to me?  We’re going to the large conference room.”

The blonde woman smiled and gave a demure affirmation.  Eren could hear a few of the guys quietly vocalize intentions of asking the receptionist out.  He gave the young woman a second look and realized that she _was_ pretty but dating wasn’t exactly the first thing on his mind these days.

“Red group follow me!” the first woman called and walked through the door behind the receptionist’s desk.  Nearly the entire room emptied out. 

Eren looked around and saw another blonde woman with her hair in a bun and a wearing a gray business suit seated on one of the stuffed dark leather chairs typical of office waiting room furniture and reading a book off to his right.  A tall young man in a dress pants and shirt and tie with a vaguely nervous expression was leaning against the wall to his left.  Eren chose to move over and sit a few chairs down from the woman to wait. 

There were a few more interns that filtered in and were directed into the door beyond by the receptionist, but for the next half hour, no one showed up asking for the brown group.  As each minute ticked by he began to get more and more nervous.  ‘ _Do I have the right floor?’_ He double-checked what he had written down, but wasn’t very reassured to find that he was on the correct floor.  The fact that there were only two other people waiting wasn’t a good sign.  The red group had been huge.

After a while, he turned to the blonde woman.

“Uh, excuse me, but are you part of the brown group, too?”

Blue eyes flicked over to him disinterestedly.

“Yes.”

Eren could feel his shoulders relax.

“I’m Eren Jaeger,” he said, extending his hand.  She glanced at his hand before sighing and offering her own.  Her hand was cool and dry, but her grip was firm, shaking his hand once before dropping it.

“Annie Leonhardt,” she said and promptly turned back to the paperback she had been reading.  He didn’t really fault her for her demeanor.  Idle chitchat with strangers wasn’t exactly high on his list of favorite things, either.

He settled back into his own chair, idly hooking a thumb through the tie around his neck and tugging lightly.  His other hand reached down into the pocket of his suit jacket, grasping his phone and pulling it out to check the time. 

He had just clicked on the screen on when the door behind the receptionist opened and a short man with a distinctly unimpressed look on his face stood there.

“Shitstain group, follow me.”

Eren jumped, startled, but Annie stood and began to walk over without a word.  He quickly put his phone back in his pocket and got to his feet, noticing from the corner of his eyes that the tall man had peeled himself away from the wall.

The three trailed after the short man through the door emerging in a hallway with a door directly in front of them containing a frosted window with stenciled black letters announcing it as the gateway to the Operations Department Main Offices.  Their group leader turned to the right and walked away down the hall.  They followed him until they passed the employee washrooms and he turned left down an intersecting corridor, ignoring all the doors they passed until they reached one at the very end of the hallway.  This door also had a frosted window, but there were no letters on it stating what offices they had reached.

The man reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a key card, swiping it through a reader on the door and a green light accompanied the audible click of the door unlocking.  His right hand dipped into his pocket and pulled out a folded handkerchief that he shook out and used it to grasp the handle, pulling the door wide open. 

The man held it long enough for them to shuffle through then walked around past them and led them to an alcove on the right that obviously served as the break room.  It contained a few small tables and some plastic chairs, a couch that was clearly built for durability rather than aesthetics, a trashcan, and a few vending machines.  Cabinets lined one wall ending in a fridge and on top of the counter rested a coffee machine and a microwave.  The room itself was spotless.

“My name is Levi,” he said, sitting down on one of the chairs, gesturing for them to follow suit.  He began to meticulously refold his handkerchief as he continued, “I’m responsible for you three.  As of today, you do as I say when I say it.  As long as that is understood, we shouldn’t have any problems.  Introduce yourselves.”

Eren startled a bit at the abrupt command but then he reminded himself once again of his goal and spoke up, voice more confident than he expected and expression flashing with oddly fierce determination, “Eren Jaeger.”

Levi’s eyes landed on him and for a moment, his gaze intensified to the point that Eren felt like the man was piercing his brain with his stare.  Time may have stopped.

“Jean Kirschtein,” the tall man said and Eren found himself relieved that Levi’s attention was diverted.

“Annie Leonhardt.”

“Now that we’re all friendly, you three can start by-“

“Levi!  I see you picked up the new interns.”

Eren turned around to see a tall blond man with a serious, yet still friendly face.

“Interns, this is Erwin Smith.  He’s in charge of this office.”

“It’s nice to meet you all.  I hope you get a lot out of this experience.  If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to let me know,” Erwin said warmly, then turned to Levi, one corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly, “You were about to get them started…?”

There was a pause where Levi gave Erwin a very level look and Eren swore the air in the room started to solidify.

“You three can start by… getting computer log-ons and access cards.”

Eren couldn’t say why exactly, but he got the feeling that Erwin had just won some sort of silent argument.

***

Levi scowled to himself as he waited just inside the door of the Security office, eyeing the wrappers lying on the floor next to the trashcan from someone trying to toss their crumpled trash away and missing.  The main counter where the three interns were currently lined up -taking turns pressing their index fingers to a fingerprint scanner- was free from dust due to use, but he was certain it didn’t get wiped down and disinfected on anything more frequent than a monthly basis.

Security cards were a fairly simple affair.  Most of the interns had ID’s that were already made up and placed into their orientation packets with little more than their pictures, names, and assigned departments on them.  A colored square denoted intern status.

Levi’s group would require access to secure areas, which meant that they needed cards encoded with their fingerprints and with computer chips embedded in them.  There were very few interns that had to personally report to the security office.

He supposed that getting them access to the office was necessary, but if Erwin hadn’t shown up, they would all be vacuuming the hallway right now.

He wasn’t surprised that Erwin had guessed what he had planned.  It just meant he’d have to be more careful. 

Eren was the first to come over with his shiny new access card and stand quietly, but nervously beside him, waiting for the others to finish. 

Levi glanced to his side at the kid.  He had yet to really look at any of them, instead leading them around like the Pied Piper.  Eren had messy hair and not the artful kind, either.  He had the kind that looked like he had made an attempt with a comb but it broke halfway through so he gave up, possibly leaving broken comb teeth lost forever on his scalp.  His eyes really were that green.  Unusual.  Levi’s gaze dropped down to the suit, he obviously wasn’t used to wearing it: he kept fidgeting with the tie and the cuffs, trying to loosen them.  It was pressed and fitted, leading him to believe the kid’s mom had probably picked it out and bought it for him, but at least he wore it well.  A quick look at Jaeger’s feet showed off-brand dress shoes, ridiculously new.  Kid likely got them yesterday, last minute.

He looked back up to see Eren was looking at him curiously before quickly whipping his head back when he realized Levi had seen him.  The slightest hint of a blush pricked the skin of his face, likely embarrassed that he had been caught, despite the fact that Levi had been doing the same.  It was actually rather funny that the kid thought pretending like it hadn’t happened was less awkward than owning up to it and diffusing any tension. 

He would never admit to it out loud, but Levi kind of liked awkward kids.  They were more fun to mess with.

Levi was about to say something when his attention shifted with the clacking of heels as Annie approached.  She looked like she spent her whole life living in a suit.  She didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable with her attire.  Gray jacket -professionally tailored, by Levi’s guess - blue button-up shirt starched, and skirt stopping just below the knee.  She even wore nylons although the company’s policy didn’t require it.  Her shoes were high shine and black, but the heels were low, as though she expected to be on her feet for hours at a time.

Levi’s gaze flicked to the last of his interns.  Kirschtein… looked like a horse.

They made their way back to the office, Levi insisting each one try to unlock the door to ensure their cards worked, before showing them to an unclaimed desk with a computer close to the front of the office.  He pointed at it with a curt, “Share.”

He glanced at the clock up on the wall, saw it was forty five minutes until lunch, and made his way over to his desk.  Before sitting down, he popped the lid on a box of disinfectant wipes and quickly went over all the surfaces her expected to touch.  A minute later he was logging onto his computer and pulling up his e-mail to see that the IT department had forwarded him blank network access forms for the interns to fill out.  He clicked the print button then called out to the first head he saw.

“Kirschtein!”

Immediately the kid’s head whipped towards his.  “Sir?”

“I just printed off some forms you need to fill out.  Go grab them from the printer.”

There was a pause.

“Where is the printer?”

“What do I look like, the office floor plan?”

He could tell the kid was fighting back an incredulous look, but he straightened up and began looking around the office. 

Most of the room was open with low cubicle walls separating the desks.  Levi, facing the door, had a wall to his right and the aisle to his left.  A divider separated the front of his desk from Petra’s, who was currently out of the office for the morning like the majority of the building’s employees on Intern Day.  Erwin had the only private office in the room; it shared a wall with the break room.  If he wanted to, Erwin could stand in his doorway and stare across the aisle at the back of Levi’s head.  He usually reserved that privilege for when he received phone calls from the janitors’ union.

Next to Erwin’s office was a meeting room.  Around the corner of the meeting room were the printers, the fax machine, and the shredder.  Beyond that, more desks.  Jean had clearly decided that going deeper into the office was his best bet.  A few moments later, he returned with several sheets and distributed them to his fellow interns.  It was fairly quiet while they filled them out.  He heard some muffled conversation as they debated what to put in each field.

He turned back to his e-mail and was in the process of deleting most of the company-wide notices when he heard someone walk up to his desk.  He would have ignored whichever one it was, but he could _feel_ their awkward and it was distracting.  He settled for slowly looking over his shoulder in annoyance.

“Can you print off another one of these, I kind of screwed up,” Eren said, holding up one of the forms that looked like an angry toddler had scribbled all over it.  After a second he realized some of those scribbles were actually meant to be written word.  His lack of concern in his apparent inability to read and write was almost endearing.

“I thought our intern program was supposed to be competitive.  Did they only open it to kids with traumatic brain injuries this year?”

At that remark, Eren’s hands went to his hips and his shoulders rose in a way that could only be described as sheepish, his smile easy and a little self-deprecating.  Levi’s eyes flicked over him, tried to think of a word other than cute, then sighed, turned back to his computer, pulled the forms back up and printed off a new one.  As Eren walked over to the printer area, Levi called after him.

“This time, make an extra copy before you write on it, so if you screw up again _I_ don’t have to go through the trouble of printing it off all day.”

“Yes sir!”

“And write in all capital letters, so whatever poor bastard has to look at your form has a chance at deciphering it.”

“Yes sir!” the boy called back on a laugh.

It was quiet for a while after that with the trio busy.  When Levi glanced up at the clock next, he saw that it was just about lunch time.  “Hey interns!”

Three heads popped up over the cubicle into view. 

“Go grab lunch.”  They all nodded in unison and Levi was reminded of Village of the Damned.  A few minutes after they shuffled out of the office, Erwin emerged from his.  He walked over to Levi and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m hungry.”

“Then you should probably eat something.”

“Yes, let’s go.”

Erwin never asked questions like a normal person.  He had a tendency to phrase everything like suggestions or orders.  For instance: inviting Levi out to lunch.

Levi was certain he hadn’t ever heard Erwin say, “Levi, do you want to go grab lunch together?”

He rolled his eyes, logged off his computer and followed Erwin out the door.

***

Eren glanced over the menu as he waited in line with Annie and Jean.  They had initially decided to go to the company cafeteria, but after arriving and finding it jam-packed; they opted to try their luck elsewhere.  There was a brief argument between Eren and Jean on whether they should walk or drive around until they found something that looked promising when Annie wordlessly held up her phone, showing a search result for a nearby soup and sandwich shop.

She had led the way down the sidewalk, walking at a brisk pace that Eren and Jean found surprisingly difficult to match considering she was much shorter than either of them.  The shop she led them to was just as busy as the cafeteria had been, but they could see the staff running efficiently through the customers, churning out orders like a machine.

“What are you guys getting?” Jean asked.

“Tomato bisque and three cheese melt,” Annie responded.

“I’m not sure, what are you getting?”

“I’m thinking the club and the minestrone.”

Eren eyed the menu that hung over the counter, the items and prices written in colored chalk.

“I’m going to go with… the hero and the beer cheese soup.” 

They placed their orders when they got to the front of the line, surprised that by the time they had paid, they were already being handed assembled sandwiches and bowls of soup.  Jean, being taller than most and able to look over the heads of the other patrons, managed to spot a small table against one of the walls with three empty stools.  They made their way over, sweeping the crumbs off the tabletop and sitting down.

It was quiet at their table as they unwrapped their sandwiches and popped the lids off their soup.  Annie tugged a napkin out of the dispenser in the middle of the table, unfolded it and spread it over her lap, prompting the two boys to do the same.  It generally didn’t look professional to walk around and have people able to guess what you ate for lunch by studying your crotch.

“Do either of you know exactly what department we’re in?” Eren asked after a couple of bites.

“Not a clue,” Jean said as Annie shrugged for an answer.

“Levi didn’t really explain… anything at all.”

“Not even where the printer is,” Jean said.  Annie gave a small smile.

“I just wish I had an idea of what we’re going to be doing.”

“Fetching coffee and making copies.  What else do interns do?” Jean said, shoving a corner of his sandwich into his mouth.  “Thith ith goob.”

“I hope not.  I really want to get some good experience.  I don’t want to waste my time tearing apart a copier to figure out where the paper jam is.”

“That’s an unavoidable part of working in an office,” Annie said, taking a delicate sip off her soup spoon.

There were a couple minutes of relative silence as they ate the sounds of the lunch crowd around them and quiet conversations melded into a steady buzz.  Eren devoured his soup before picking at his sandwich and Jean inhaled his food like a vacuum.  Annie ate like a trained dignitary, posture perfect and somehow consuming her soup without a single slurping sound. 

“Why are there only three of us?” Eren asked, suddenly.

“Because there are?” Jean replied haltingly.

“The other groups were huge.  You saw how many people went to Operations.  Our office door wasn’t even labeled.  So why just three and why us?”

“Maybe we’re the elite and this is a specialized department.  I was at the top of my graduating class,” Jean said.

Eren glanced at Annie.

“I did well also.”

“I was close to the top, but I wasn’t the best.  I know someone who was accepted into the intern program here too and I couldn’t really hope to compete with her, but she went to a department with a lot of other interns.  If they wanted an elite group with the best of the best, she would be here, not me.”

Annie’s lips pursed as she set down her spoon and began wrapping up the half of her sandwich she that hadn’t eaten.

“Either they’ll tell us or they won’t.  If you want to know so badly, you could always ask Levi.”

“Just don’t ask where the printer is,” Jean added in a very serious tone before he and Eren both burst out into giggles like a couple of schoolboys.  Annie gave a small smile and placed the rest of her sandwich into her purse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you to my beta, [ Uchiha_Riddle ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Uchiha_Riddle/profile). She has been so helpful and goes through my work super-quick. Then I spend an inexcusable amount of time applying the edits.

Levi and Erwin rolled into the office after lunch to find that the trio of interns had already returned and were waiting at their shared desk.  The chair Jean was seated in looked like it had been liberated from the break room.  He and Eren had their heads bent over a piece of paper while Annie watched with a disinterested expression.

Erwin spoke a “Good afternoon” to them, which they returned as he walked past.  Levi headed towards his desk without a word, a frown forming on his face as he saw that his chair was occupied.

“Get away from my desk, shitty glasses.”

“Those three are your interns, aren’t they?” she spoke loudly and pointed at them.  The interns looked over curiously.

“They’re not deaf.”

“They’re so cute!  You should come up with a name for them like ‘The Three Musketeers’ or ‘The Three Stooges’ or ‘The Dude, Walter, and Donny’!”

“Destiny’s Child,” Levi said, monotonously.

“Which one of us is Beyoncé?” Eren called over.

“You’re Beyoncé,” Levi said.

He looked ridiculously pleased by that.

“Who am I?” Jean asked.

“The other one.”

“There were two other ones.”

“I don’t know their names,” Levi replied.

“Kelly Rowland,” Hange added helpfully.

“Fine.  You’re the one that’s not Kelly Rowland.”

“Hey Annie, you’re Kelly Rowland,” Eren said.

“I don’t know who that is,” Annie replied.

“They’re really adorable!” Hange hissed lowly.  “Have you made out with any of them yet?”

If Levi was the spluttering type, he would have done exactly that.

“I just met them this morning.”

“Good plan, better to romance them slowly.”

“Get out of my chair.”

“You’re right, I should go introduce myself officially,” Hange beamed, springing up and rushing over to the interns.  Levi watched as she enthusiastically welcomed them, asked them rapid-fire questions, and told them absolutely nothing about herself.  Not even her own name.

Levi opened a drawer in his desk, removed a bottle of Lysol and sprayed down the chair and desk.  He was always hesitant about going near Hange after she spent time in the R&D department.  She was usually thorough in regards to hygiene and cleanliness, but he didn’t trust some of the other employees down there. 

Within the next ten minutes the office slowly began to fill up while Hange continued assaulting the interns with her police-style interrogation.  Petra shuffled into her desk, giving him a greeting that was filled with smiles and chipper tones as she settled in across from him.  Out of his peripheral he could see Mike sit down at the desk across the aisle.

“Levi.”

 “What?” He asked, turning to see Annie standing off to his left with a small sheaf of papers in her hand.

“We have our network access forms completed.”

“Call the rest of the girl group over, we’re going to visit the fax machine.”

Before he had quite finished his sentence, the other two were already approaching the desk, so he turned and headed to the copy area.

He pointed to one of the devices sitting on the counter.

“This is the fax machine.  Instructions are taped on it.  When you fax anything out of this office, you will _always_ use a cover sheet.  We are faxing your forms to the IT department so that they can get you access to our system.  Up there,” he pointed to a cabinet above the counter, “is a binder that contains all the fax numbers for personnel within this building.  Grab it.”

Jean, who was closest, reached up and grasped the binder from the cabinet.  He held it out to Levi.

“Look up Kitts Verman.”

Jean flipped through the sheet-protected pages until he reached the V’s and began running his index finger down the page until he found the name he was looking for.

“Got it.”

“Fax your forms to him.”

“What should the cover sheet say?” Eren asked.

Levi quirked an eyebrow, walked over to a copier and opened one of its paper trays.  He withdrew a blank sheet, took a pen from his shirt pocket and scribbled a message on it.  He handed it to Annie, who still held the rest of the sheets.

Eren leaned over her arm to look.

“To: Shithead.  Require network access.  My department.  –Levi.”

He got three strange looks.

“Should I have dotted my i’s with little hearts?”

“Uh… what _is_ this department?” Eren asked after a moment.

“We’re a subdivision of Operations.”

“That didn’t really-”

“Erwin said he would to talk to you three about that himself after I got you all set up.  Save your questions for him and fax your shit.”

Annie turned to the fax machine and slid the sheets into the tray without so much as a twitch.  Together, the three huddled around the machine and started pressing sequences of buttons as they followed the instructions.

“It says error code 380 ECM,” Jean said.

“Try it again.”

The three ran through it twice more, the third failure resulting in some mild cursing from Eren.  Levi sighed then stepped up.  They automatically parted to let him through.  He adjusted the papers in the tray, followed the instructions to the letter, and got error code 380 ECM.

Annoyed, he hit the power button, unplugged everything, re-plugged everything, and turned the machine back on.  He ran through the steps again and received error code 380 ECM.

“Piece of shit.”

He glared at the fax machine for a moment longer as if he could will it to explode with his mind.

“I’ll show you how to scan documents to e-mail.”

***

After clicking open his e-mail and seeing the scanned documents, Levi created a new message and typed ‘Kitts Verman’ into the search field in his contacts list.  He attached the forms documents, requesting network access for the three interns.  He also wrote a nasty note about how shitty the fax machine was and included the annoying error code.  He sent it off and then lifted the receiver of his phone, glancing at the contacts list that was still displayed with Kitts’ basic office information and dialed the man’s extension. 

There wasn’t an answer.

Levi glanced at his screen again.  A green dot next to Verman’s name indicated that he was logged on and had been active on the computer within the past couple of minutes.

Kitts’ voicemail message played followed by a tone that prompted the caller to begin speaking.

“It’s Levi.  Answer your phone.  I can see that you’re at your desk, because it says that you’re signed in.  I just sent you an e-mail with some network access forms that I need done as soon as possible,” he finished, hanging up. 

A few moments later he received an e-mail in response from Verman stating that he was working on the forms and should have them done by the end of the day.

“How’re things going with the new interns?” Petra asked, peeking over the low cubicle wall and giving him a quick smile.  Levi glanced up at her than beyond to where the trio were currently operating an assembly line of stuffing envelopes and placing stamps on them.  Jean and Annie were still in full business dress, but Eren had removed his suit jacket, exposing the white button-down shirt and broad shoulders.  Even from that distance, Levi could see that the younger man had some muscle definition.

Eren had already rolled up his sleeves, forearms exposed, as he ran a hand through his hair.  Levi quickly snapped his eyes back to Petra.

“They’re mildly useful.”  They could stuff envelopes, at any rate.

“Has Erwin told you why he gave them to you?”

“No.  He just said to get them set up and that they were my new team.”

Petra frowned.

“New team for what?”

The dark haired man shrugged.  Erwin obviously had some project in mind that he did not yet see fit to share.  Though Levi wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with a few interns that he couldn’t do with his other co-workers. 

Petra sat back down and Levi’s eyes slid back to the trio.  Eren and Jean appeared to be bickering quietly while Annie ignored the both of them.  Unconsciously, Eren’s hand reached up to loosen his tie then he undid the top button.

In some offices rolling up your sleeves and tugging down one’s tie wasn’t considered professional appearance, but Levi had the feeling that Eren put more stock in hard work and results than formalities. 

Annie and Jean seemed a bit more refined.  Levi considered the three of them and Jean’s equestrian features notwithstanding, none of them were actually unappealing in appearance.

His phone suddenly rang and Levi snapped himself back to reality.  He grabbed the receiver and shoved it to his ear, already thanking the person on the other end of the line in his head.

“That intern of yours looks like he has a nice firm body,” Hange cackled.  Levi assumed she was talking about Eren, since he was the only one stripped of his suit jacket.

“What do you want?”

“I think I want your intern.”

“No.”

“Why?  Are you jealous already?  You haven’t even known him for a day!”

“I don’t want you near any of my interns.  The last thing this company needs is a sexual harassment lawsuit.”

“Levi.  It wouldn’t be harassment, Levi.  It wouldn’t.”

“Did you call for an actual reason?”

“Tell him to undo another button.”

“No.”

 “Then again, the tall one’s pretty good-looking too.  Why are all you’re interns so good-looking?”

This made Levi pause.  He had more or less been thinking along similar lines.  Maybe none of them were movie star attractive, but they could all probably turn your head in a bar.  He felt the creeping suspicion that this was not by accident.  The more he looked at them, he was sure.  Whatever Erwin was planning, Levi guessed it involved these kids more than he initially believed.

He glanced over Kirschtein objectively.  Once Levi got past the length of the kid’s face and saw that all his features complemented each other and added to his tall, lean frame, it became apparent that Jean was attractive. 

Hange’s voice dropped to a low whisper as if she suspected people of tapping the line, “Of course, I always thought blondes were pretty cute, do you think she swings that way?”

“No.”

Annie in comparison was dainty looking, petite, but the way she looked at people implied she was unimpressed.  Levi had seen that quality do more for some men than any amount of flirtation.

Then Eren.  He looked like a go-getter, like he was determined to succeed.  Levi had never seen eyes in that particular shade of green before.  His body was nice too, broad-shoulders and the impression of toned muscles.  It was clear that Erwin chose these kids for their rankings and their looks, but Levi wasn’t sure how the two fit together.

“We could do a double-date.  I’ll pick one and you pick one.  Ask Petra if she wants to come along, she can have one too.  I think I’ll go with the blonde.  She kind of reminds me of you.”

After a couple of years around Hange, Levi had long since ceased to be disturbed by anything she said. 

“Shut up.”

“You want the tall one?  Sometimes shorter guys really like the person they’re with to tower over them.  Or would you prefer Beyoncé?”

“His name’s Eren.”  He had the feeling that despite Hange having drilled them with questions earlier, she had failed to get any of their names.  When he had started, she’d spent three months calling him Batman. He had always assumed it was because she hadn’t actually known what he was called.

“Ask him out for drinks.”

“No.”

“You’re right.  It’s too early; he might think it’s a little weird after the first day.  I like your plan of waiting a week.”

“I don’t _have_ any plans.”

“That’s why I’m giving them to you.  I’ll do all the planning, you execute them, and we’ll all get laid by Friday.”

Levi hung up.

A minute later, Hange was at his desk.

“Unless you’re interested in a relationship.  It’ll be hard, but I think we can have you two dating within a month.”

Petra’s head suddenly appeared over the cubicle wall.

“What’s this?”

“Levi’s going to-”

“No,” he stated with all the finality he possessed.  Hange looked disappointed, but unfortunately not deterred.

“What about the other two?  You want my date?”

“ _No_.”

***

“I hear you three are Destiny’s Child.”

The interns looked up to see a tall blond man leaning against the wall of the cubicle.

“I’m Mike,” he offered, then gave the air around them a cursory sniff and smirked.  “Grab those envelopes and I’ll show you where the mailroom is.”

Jean and Eren picked up the two boxes of envelopes they had stuffed and stood up, Annie empty-handed behind them.  Mike led them out of the office, down the hallways, past the blonde receptionist and up to the elevators.  He pressed the down button and waited.

“Why are there so many more people in the office after lunch than this morning?” Eren asked.

“Because it’s Intern Day.”

At the series of blank looks he received, Mike elaborated, “Most of the employees are given the day off so the interns can get set up without everyone tripping over each other.  Most of our office just took the morning off.”

When the elevator arrived and the doors slid open, they filed into the box after Mike.  Their guide pressed a button for one of the basements floors and they rode down in relative silence, accompanied by the faint music playing from the ceiling.

There were a few stops as small groups of interns and their keepers would occasionally get on or off the elevator before they arrived at their floor and Mike led them down a corridor off to the left.  He pushed through a set of double doors that swung either way like stockroom doors in supermarkets.

Inside was a large room filled with mail carts and shelves comprised of slots.  A few workers tossed packs of letters back and forth calling out which bin they should go in to each other.  On a counter in one of the corners, a yellow and black DeWalt worksite radio was tuned to a local rock station.  Mike led the three to a wall of carts against one of the walls, the word ‘Outgoing’ sprayed in black stenciled letters above them.

“When you have a lot of mail, bring it down yourself and throw it in here,” he said, pointing to the carts.  “Don’t leave boxes of envelopes in the copy area unless you want to piss of Levi.”

“He’s a bit of a neat freak, huh?” Jean asked.

Mike shrugged.  “Don’t let him catch you leaving a mess around the office.  If you clean up after yourselves you’ll go a long way towards staying on his good side.  Which one of you is Beyoncé?” 

“That would be Eren, here,” Jean answered, elbowing the intern in question.

“Which one are you?” Mike asked.

“The other one,” Jean grinned and jerked his head towards Annie, “and that’s Kelly Rowland.”

Mike smirked and led them back out towards the elevator.  The three returned to the office only to be intercepted by Levi on their way to their shared desk.

“9am tomorrow morning you three having a meeting in that board room,” Levi jabbed his thumb at the the door a little ways past Erwin’s office, “with Erwin.  He’s going to give you the official introduction to the office here and maybe we’ll get some real work out of you.  Right now, we’re going to get on the network.  The IT department already got you access.  We just need to get your e-mails set up and get you user profiles on some of the sites we use.”

“Leonhardt, try logging on here -same pin you set up in the security office.  Kirschtein, Jaeger, over here,” Levi ordered leading them over to where his desk was.  “Petra, can we use your computer?”

The woman in question glanced up, “Uh, yeah, just give me a moment to log off… and… okay, all set!”

She gave Levi a bright smile and vacated her chair, heading towards the back of the office.

“Kirschtein, take Petra’s desk.  Eren, use mine.”

Levi stood by the desks, walking the three through the e-mail set-up, configuring the security settings so that they could send attachments, and getting started on setting up their user profiles.

“What should I enter for this field?” Eren asked, calling Levi over.

The shorter man stepped over to his desk from where he had been helping Jean and leaned over Eren’s shoulder to look where the kid was pointing.

“What are the options in the drop down box?”

Eren clicked it and a list spilled down on the screen.

Levi leaned closer, eyes scanning over the selections as he caught a whiff of what was either Eren’s soap or his deodorant.  Unable to resist, despite himself, Levi lowered his body by millimeters, and lifted his hand to hover over Jaeger’s on the mouse.  The intern hesitated a second before relinquishing the device and allowing Levi to scroll through the options, his arm effectively caging Eren on one side, as his other hand braced on the back of the chair, behind the kid’s shoulder.

Levi made a selection which opened another set of options that he quickly scrolled through, clicking the necessary options.  As the last list closed, he found himself oddly reluctant to move away and simultaneously feeling like he was the office’s resident creeper.

“Anything else?” he asked, voice low as it rolled into Eren’s ear.

“No sir.  Thank you!”

Thankfully, either Levi wasn’t as disturbingly obvious as he felt or the kid was the oblivious type.  He stood up fully, drawing his hand back and unintentionally brushing against Eren’s still-exposed forearm as he did so. 

“Sorry,” the automatic apology fell out of his mouth for the inadvertent graze.  Levi was hyper-aware of the point-of-contact on his arm.

“It’s fine,” Eren said, focusing more on the screen than on him. 

Levi moved away to see how Annie was coming along, unable to keep himself from feeling ridiculous like some sort of schoolgirl with a crush.  He hadn’t even known the kid for a day, for Christ’s sake.  The next few months were going to be tortuous if this was any indication. 

He didn’t even know Eren, other than the brief overview he had read on paper.  What he had learned for himself was that the kid caught on quickly when things were explained, he listened well, and whenever he had them take on a new task, Eren’s eyes flashed with determination; even if it was stuffing envelopes.  It was stupidly endearing.

Jaeger also probably worked out, if his shoulders and arms were anything to go by. 

Levi reached Annie and forced his mind to focus on figuring out whether she needed any help from him or not.

***

Eren leaned on the edge of the desk behind Annie, who was seated in the computer chair, and was leafing through his welcome packet.  Levi was helping Jean finish up on the computer and had told them to wait for their out brief for the day.

“They have a list of cocktail lounges in the city,” Eren said, having pulled out a stapled sheaf of papers tucked into the back pocket of the folder.

“Drinks after work is something of a tradition,” Annie nodded.

“They also have restaurants that are open for lunch within walking distance… this last page is full of businesses that will give us a discount if we present our employee ID.”

Annie spun around to face him.

“You guys want to go out when we’re done or not really?” Eren asked.

“Not really.”

Eren’s disappointment must have shown because Annie sighed and amended, “I’d prefer to wait until Friday so I can avoid coming in with a hangover on my first week.”

“That is an excellent point,” Eren mused.

“I thought so.”

“My roommates probably wouldn’t be happy if I stumbled in late, either.”

“I have my own place,” Annie said, surprising him by volunteering information about herself for the first time that day.

“That must be nice.  How do you afford it?”

“My father offered to pay if I took this internship.”

“Wow.  My dad told me to rent a place with my sister so it would be cheaper.”

“You live with your sister?” Annie asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.  Eren felt himself blush and ducked his head adorably.

“I didn’t have much of a choice.  She and my dad ganged up on me.  She’s making me carpool in with her, too.”

Annie’s eyebrows shot up.

“You and your sister were both accepted?  Your dad must be proud.”

“Actually, I think he would’ve preferred for me to go to medical school like him.”

“Ah, you’re a doctor’s kid.”

“If you’re implying that somehow makes me a spoiled brat, I’ll have you know that you are very mistaken,” Eren said in mock defense, hand splayed over his heart.

Annie let out a quiet laugh.

“Where do you live?  We have room in our carpool if we’re not completely out of each other’s way.”

“I take the subway.”

“Oh.”

Levi and Jean showed up in the next moment, effectively derailing Eren and Annie’s conversation.

“We’re going on a field trip,” Levi announced.

“Where to?” Eren asked, attention latching onto the older man.

“The R&D Department.”

Another elevator trip and a walk down a long hallway later and they were standing in front of a thick metal door labeled “Research and Development”.  Levi pulled out his key card and swiped it through the reader.  A green light flashed on the handle, and -handkerchief readily in hand- he reached out and twisted it open.

The interns filed inside to see another long hallway with a series of doors.  The one immediately in front of them was labeled “Offices” while to the left and right they all appeared to be labs.  Every single door had a keycard reader installed on it.

“We work very closely with this department,” Levi said, swiping his card and unlocking the door to the offices.  Before they could get two steps in, Hange popped in front of them.

“I’ve been waiting for you guys to show up!  Come on, come,” she beckoned, waving them in and past a few metal desks covered in papers and empty gas station coffee cups.  Wrappers of all kinds littered the area, empty beverage bottles looked like they had been thrown randomly across the room, and _somehow_ there was a tissue stuck to the ceiling.  Most of the computers were equipped with two monitors and the cords jumbled across the desks and floor haphazardly.

“This place is even filthier than last time,” Levi grumbled, looking around disgustedly.

“Hm?  Oh, that.  Not a lot I can do about other people’s messes,” Hange replied, heading towards a door in the back.  She pushed it open, letting the interns in to see that it was a small meeting room with a large table.  Surprisingly, it was perfectly clean. 

Levi was still hovering near the entrance of the office.

“I’ll just leave you to it, then,” Hange said, stepping inside the meeting room and closing the door behind her.

“I thought you worked upstairs,” Jean spoke when she turned to them.

“Technically I belong to both departments.”

“How does that work?” Eren asked.

“I have a lab down here and a desk upstairs.  I run back and forth between the two departments as needed.”

“So what exactly do you do?” Eren pressed.

“I’m glad you asked,” Hange replied grinning widely.

An hour and a half later, the interns felt like they hadn’t learned anything and Hange was still going strong; describing an experiment she had been running recently.  A loud knock on the door interrupted her mid-sentence before it swung open.

“I’ve just been informed by Moblit that ten minutes before we came down here, you went on a rampage trashing the office,” Levi stated, face eerily calm.

Although there were no visible signs of it, Levi’s anger was nearly palpable.

Hange was remarkably unfazed by it.

“I just wanted to get to know your interns a little better without you hovering around like a mama bear.”

Levi took a breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled.

“If you’re going to give them a tour, you had better hurry.  The workday is almost over.”

Hange’s face swung to the clock on the wall, looking alarmed.

“Right!  I’ll show you a few of the products we’re developing, give you a _brief_ overview -” there was a loud snort from Levi there, “of them and send you on your way.  Be sure to pay attention, you’re all going to need to be familiar with these products and their specs.“

Before any of them could ask her why, she was already out the door and halfway out of the office, which was mysteriously much cleaner than when they had walked through earlier.  They hurried to catch up.

***

Levi had managed to return his interns back to their proper division a few minutes before the end of the day.  They were gathered around the shared desk again and Levi was giving them a little wrap-up meeting.

“Remember, 9:00 am with Erwin.  Before that, you three are in charge of getting the coffee, the hot water, and the fruit and pastry plate into the meeting room.  I’ll show you what to do in the morning.  Second, everything that Hange said and showed you today does not leave this office.  Your assignment as interns officially begins after Erwin’s presentation.”

The three glanced back and forth at each other, but neglected to ask him questions about what they were there to do, already knowing they weren’t going to get an answer out of Levi.

They had belongings gathered up and were ready to leave as soon as their wrap-up with Levi was over.

“That’s all I have for you.  See you tomorrow.”

Annie took that as her cue to briskly walk to the exit, Jean following behind, digging in his pocket for his keys and shooting a farewell over his shoulder.  Eren was the last to slip past Levi.

“See you in the morning!” he said, flashing a bright grin before hurrying after the other two while fumbling with his cell phone and bringing it up to his ear, apparently making a call.

 _He has a great smile._   Levi thought before his eyes landed on Eren's retreating back and noticing he also had a great ass. He was probably going to be in trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is completely unrelated to the story I just posted but, anyone else get sick over the holidays? I don't think I slept so much since infancy. Yesterday my throat was so swollen I thought I had strep and was going to die. I always think I'm literally going to die when I have strep. Anyway, unless strep is curable with a few ibuprofen and holding a can of frozen juice to your neck, I probably don't have it, because I am feeling a lot better today. I even had the energy to do dishes and jump start my car.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for the long wait, if anyone is still reading this.

Levi had just finished putting the vacuum back in the janitor’s closet and shut the door when Eren turned into the hallway.

“Morning!” the intern said brightly taking a sip from a travel mug. Levi presumed it contained coffee.

“Good morning,” he replied, inserting the key he wasn’t supposed to have into the keyhole and twisting it locked. Eren didn’t bother to ask what he was doing, but he did fall into to step with Levi when the older man started to head back to their office.

They didn’t say a word to each other until they reached the office door.

“I’ve got it,” Eren said, pulling out his keycard first and swiping it through the reader. He pulled the door open and held it for Levi, then followed him in. 

A glance at the clock informed Levi that his intern was twenty minutes early. Most of the office was still empty. Eren settled into the desk the three were given and Levi moved to his own to log on. Surreptitiously the older man watched as the intern set down his travel mug and rearranged the chairs squished in around the computer until he could sit down in one.

Eren slid his ID card into the card reader on the keyboard and rested his chin in his palm until the screen loaded and he was able to enter his pin. Levi had no idea what the kid was looking at on his screen, but Eren started chewing on his lower lip in a way that probably shouldn’t have been attractive, but was.

Levi frowned, annoyed. He didn’t want cute interns. He didn’t want interns.

Suddenly Eren glanced up and there was a brief instant of eye contact until Levi snapped his gaze back to his computer screen. Now he’d been caught staring. His frown turned into a scowl. He was becoming the office creeper, one hundred percent for real. 

A quick glimpse back revealed that Eren was still looking at him. The kid gave him an easy lopsided smile before ducking his head and focusing back at his computer screen. Levi felt sudden warmth in the center of his chest. All Eren did was flash him a smile that managed to relieve any awkward tension from Levi’s staring and simultaneously made him feel like a schoolgirl that had just got noticed by her crush. Gross.

Levi didn’t want to give Hange credit –ever- but maybe he did need to get out. Not with Hange, of course -he had long since learned his lesson, but maybe Erwin would be up for a couple of drinks after work. Erwin was pleasant enough company. Or Mike, he didn’t say much, which was one of the things that was so appealing about him. Levi suspected that he might be a little starved for human interaction on a purely social level.

Naturally the universe would dangle an attractive intern with well-defined shoulders in front of his face that was quite possibly too young for him. Why wouldn’t it?

Levi’s cycle of thoughts were interrupted when Annie walked in the door wearing a pressed navy pant suit and carrying a tablet. It was now quarter to. One last musketeer and then Levi would run them through the process of setting up a room for a meeting. 

The rest of the office staff began to quickly filter in, the ambient noise level gradually building. Hange made her way to his desk when she arrived.

“I’ve got those product test results you wanted,” she said, slapping a folder down on his desk and leaning into his personal space to squint over his shoulder at what he was working on. 

“Thanks.”

“Are you excited for the meeting this morning?”

“Not particularly.”

“I’ve heard a rumor that Erwin’s been working on this project for a couple of years and now he can finally implement it,” she said lowly into his ear. 

That was interesting. Levi was well aware that Erwin often played a long game. Hange’s information usually sounded like speculation and hearsay, but it was rarely wrong.

“Oh?”

“As I understand it, he started the groundwork a few years ago and now he has everything set up to where he can fully implement it.”

“What’s the project?”

“Beats me. Whatever Erwin has going on, he’s kept pretty tight-lipped about it. Which is why I can’t wait until nine o’clock!”

Levi could feel the woman literally start vibrating where she was leaning against his shoulder.

“You’re assuming this meeting relates to that project,” Levi said.

“Maybe not the same one, but... when he’s referring to his super-secret projects he often uses code. When Erwin recruited you, he called you his ballistae. Before the interns got here, he referred to them as petards.”

Levi shifted so he could turn and give her a blank look.

“Ballistae and petards are both siege weapons. He assigned those interns to you. He had something in mind a few years ago when you started and it involves the interns that you got yesterday. He’s had this in mind for at least three years.”

“Whatever Erwin wants from us, he’ll tell us in an hour. I need to show the kids how to set up the meeting room,” Levi said, standing up when he saw that Jean had arrived.

“I still can’t believe how cute they all are! I don’t know if I want to marry them or adopt them.”

Levi ignored her.

“Make sure they give you plenty of the donuts with the chocolate crème filling. They’re my favorite.”

“Fine.”

Levi walked past Hange to the intern desk. 

“Let’s go,” he said, watching as they scrambled up out of their chairs. They dutifully trailed after him again to the elevators. He took them to one of the lower floors and led them through a slight maze until they reached more of the stockroom style doors. 

Inside was an industrial kitchen. A very large one. Several employees moved about in hairnets and aprons, cooking.

“This is our test kitchen,” Levi drawled, giving them a moment to look around the brightly lit space. Stainless steel countertops ran in neat rows in the center of the room. Alongside one wall were several ovens and a line of stove tops. A few large coolers were towards the back and several wire shelves full of dry ingredients were to the right.

“We test our commercial and home appliances here and it’s also a functional kitchen. This is where the cafeteria’s food comes from, where the bagels from the coffee shop on the first floor come from, and when you have a meeting, you send an order down here with the date and time of the meeting and they fill it.”

Levi walked up to a brunette woman that was sitting at a computer near the front of the kitchen. She was chewing on a breakfast wrap that she was wholly absorbed in.   
“Sasha, we’re here for our order.”

She glanced at Levi out of the corner of her eye, nodded, and clicked a few times on her mouse, typed in a few keys and then read what was on her screen. 

“Box of donuts, fruit tray, muffin tray, bag of decaf, bag of regular, and teabag assortment… sound about right?” She was slightly muffled because she still had food in her mouth. Levi tried not to openly grimace at her.

“Yes.”

“Okay, one second and I’ll get your cart.”

She jumped out of her chair and disappeared behind another set of swinging doors only to reappear a moment later, pushing a cart with covered trays on it. She ripped off a tag that read: E. Smith, Operations Dept., and brought it over to her desk to input the pick-up into her computer.

Jean grabbed the cart and they followed Levi back to the elevators and up to their office. Eren rushed ahead to swipe his card through the reader and held the door while Jean pushed the cart through and Annie and Levi followed.

Jean wheeled the cart into the meeting room where Levi directed their attention to a smart board at the front of the room.

“This is the basic configuration we want for the meeting today.” He drew a horseshoe shape and then dabbed the marker to make little dots around it. At one end of the horseshoe he put a diamond, set off to the side. Then he drew a rectangle to the right of the horseshoe and drew circles in it.

“Any questions?” he asked, turning around.

Eren and Jean had identical looks on their faces -their eyebrows drawn down and one corner of their slightly open mouths turned up. Annie’s eyes were faintly widened, but her mouth pinched together in concern.

“Uh… what is that?” Jean asked. 

Levi glanced at his diagram.

“How we need to set up the room.” In the top ten, my ass remained unsaid.

“The horseshoe is the table?” Annie asked, sounding the closest to unsure Levi had heard from her yet.

“If you’ll notice, the table in the center of the room is actually two pushed together. There are more tables on the sides of the room. Move them around until they make a U-shape. This other rectangle is a table against the wall. Put the food and shit on it. The diamond is the podium in the corner behind you.”

“The dots are chairs?” Eren ventured.

“Yes.” Levi wondered if they were being blatantly stupid on purpose.

They got to work rearranging the room until Levi was satisfied, then he took the bags of coffee and led them to the break room. Levi had his handkerchief in hand and pulled open one of the lower cupboard doors before extracting three large airpots. He put one underneath the dispenser on the coffee machine. 

“Leonhardt, the drawer next to you has filters. Pull one out.”

Annie did as she was told and handed it over. Levi opened the top of the coffee machine and placed the filter inside. Then he grabbed a scoop that was hooked onto the machine and opened the bag of decaf coffee.

“It takes about five or six scoops for one of these pots,” he said as he began pouring scoops into the filter before shutting the lid and then flipping an orange switch, handkerchief acting as a barrier between his finger and the plastic. Levi glanced back to make sure they were paying attention because if they couldn’t figure out how to make a pot of coffee, their lives as office workers would be short-lived. What he noticed was Eren glancing at his hand that was still holding the handkerchief thoughtfully. He quickly folded it and slipped it back inside his pocket, feeling unexpectedly self-conscious and needing to distract himself with action. 

The sound of water running started up and a moment later brown liquid started to stream into the airpot. Levi closed the bag of decaf and set it next to the machine then turned to the sink and washed his hands, irrationally glad to look away.

“When that’s done, fill one up with regular coffee and then fill the third with hot water from this lever.” He indicated with a tilt of his head to an orange lever on the coffee brewer with a ‘Danger HOT Water’ label above it. 

Fifteen minutes later the last of the airpots were set inside the meeting room and Levi and his interns were seated, waiting for everyone else to arrive. Levi had sat one seat away from the podium, Eren next to him, then Annie, then Jean. He had already filled a cup with hot water and had a teabag steeping in it. A blueberry muffin sat on a plate in front of him. Eren, by contrast had refilled his travel mug with the coffee, added three packets of creamer and sugar each, and had a plate with a donut, two orange wedges, and several strawberries and grapes. Annie was simpler with only fruit and tea. Jean sipped at coffee above a plate with two muffins.

Eren’s knee brushed against his when he shifted and Levi felt a little tingle at the unintended contact. 

“Sorry,” the intern said, moving his knee away entirely too quickly.

For once, Levi understood the appeal of playing footsie. He threw one arm across the back of his chair and crossed one leg over the other, glancing casually at Eren. It would certainly make Erwin’s meeting more interesting. Unfortunately, unless you knew the other party would be a willing participant, it could turn very awkward.

Truth be told, if Eren actually did attempt something along those lines, Levi would be weirded out. It should be preceded by a lot of flirting or some indication of interest and knowing someone for longer than a day. Levi didn’t care how attractive a person was, if he didn’t know them and they started overtly touching him like that, he would break their limbs.

It didn’t make the brief daydream in Levi’s head any less welcome, however. 

Hange came in the room with a stack of folders in her arms and Levi’s thoughts cleared. She began placing a folder on the table in front of each chair, greeted his interns –none of them by name, he noticed- and then bustled over to the refreshment table. She filled a cup of straight black coffee and stacked three donuts on top of a plate. As one, all eyes in the room focused on the woman’s waistline in wonderment.

She sat down next to Levi on his left.

“That was Erwin’s chair.”

“Mine now! He should’ve wrote his name on it,” Hange said, picking up a donut and biting into it. She was practically buzzing in impatience beside him. Mike and Moblit stepped in, and a few minutes later Petra and three men that Levi would eventually have to introduce to his interns entered. He was surprised when Erwin walked in with Dot Pixis.

Hange not-so-subtly nudged him in the ribs.

“We should have bet on this,” she whispered.

“No. You always stack the deck in your favor,” Levi murmured back. This was true. He never bet against Hange when it came to whether or not her information was correct or in any other circumstance, really. The only time she wanted to gamble money was when she had a sure win.

“I’m not a risk-taker.” This was a flat-out lie. Hange’s propensity for risk-taking bordered on suicidal. It just didn’t extend to finances.

It was fine to endanger her health or life, but if her money was on the line –or worse, the betting currency was in favors to be owed, she did not take chances. Levi had been in her debt exactly once, and he vowed never to find himself there again.

A minute later and everyone was settled into seats, except for Erwin, who stood at the front of the room next to the podium.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” Erwin began, looking around the room.

Levi leaned back, his cup of tea in hand, and waited.

“First, would the new interns please stand up?”

The three pushed their chairs back and stood.

“In order, we have Eren Jaeger, Annie Leonhardt, and Jean Kirschtein,” Erwin stated and then turned to give the trio a level look.

“Not a one of you is in the Klorva Internship Program.”

And Levi was immediately lost.

A quick glance to his right revealed varying degrees of surprise on the faces of his interns. Or apparently, not interns. His trio of whatevers.

“You may be seated.”

The whatevers sat back down.

“Officially, none of these three exist as Klorva employees of any sort within our systems. That being said, they were specifically selected to perform a task for this company based on a variety of factors. I believe that for this project, these three are the best of the best out of all the potential candidates.”

Levi’s suspicions of Erwin having something specific in mind for the non-interns were correct. He was at least clear on that point.

“For some time now, Klorva’s biggest competitor has been A & P Electric International. A few years ago, the competition escalated. We began to notice a series of information hacks and we started to see employee complaints of people approaching them in bars or off the street, striking up conversations and pressing for company information. We have discovered two moles among our personnel who turned out to be A & P employees. We believe that there are possibly more that remain undiscovered. This is not widely known, even within our company.” Erwin paused, allowing the report to sink in as he looked around the room. 

To Levi, this was old news. Everyone who was currently in the room had been privy to this information aside from the three whatevers.

“We have been under attack through illegal corporate espionage,” Pixis spoke up. “They’ve even recruited our personnel that were in key management positions here. Unfortunately, we have little proof to grasp onto in order to bring it to court. So we developed a counter-measure.”

“This project is off the official books,” Erwin continued. “I’m going to tell you about Stonebird. We have been devising it over the past several years and are now ready to implement. We have decided to fight fire with fire. Stonebird is a targeted espionage campaign against A & P and you are all on its task force, including Mr. Jaeger, Miss Leonhardt, and Mr. Kirschtein.” 

Levi was certain the look he was giving Erwin was incredulous. There was no other expression that could possibly be on his face. 

“What we are asking you three to do is illegal and dangerous. We want to use you to spy on A & P and help us discover the moles within our own organization. At the end of this project, you will be awarded full positions with above entry-level pay and benefits within our company. However, if you are unwilling, you may exit the room now and we will offer you a place in the intern program you initially applied for.”

Levi felt like he should be laughing at Erwin. There was no way anyone would pledge their loyalty to a company they spent one day at. Only an idiot would knowingly break the law and put themselves at risk like that.

He waited for his non-interns to get up.

None of them did.

He glanced to his right and saw three sets of serious eyes. Eren took it a step further by looking almost insanely gleeful and determined.

It made an odd sort of warning alarm in Levi’s hindbrain. He felt like he was caught in a room with a predator. There was must have been something wrong with him for finding Eren more attractive because of that.

There was also something very wrong with these kids for not marching straight out of the room. 

Someone had clearly mistaken admittance paperwork for an insane asylum with internship applications and forwarded them to the company’s HR department.  
Erwin nodded and then began speaking again.

“If you’ll open your folders, you’ll find the projects Klorva are currently developing that we have deemed most at risk for being targeted by A & P. We are calling these the ‘kernels’. You will spend the next week learning these projects inside-out. You will know their schematics, their components, their functions, and all associated research. We will then be training you in information gathering techniques and counter measures.

“The people in this room are your support staff. Levi will still be your direct supervisor…”

Erwin continued by outlining the command structure for the personnel involved in the task force and then dismissed all but Levi and the non-interns.  
Hange did not vacate her seat.

When Levi tried to shoot her an annoyed look, she flashed a grin and leaned back in her chair.

Erwin waited until the door of the meeting room shut again before speaking.

“We have reason to believe our personnel database has been compromised, therefore none of you three are on our roster. It makes your pay somewhat complicated. We’ve decided to bill your wages as part of a services package through the Finance Department. You will begin to see biweekly cash deposits, instead. I have credit cards for each of you to be used only for expenses linked to this project,” Erwin said, before removing three Mastercards from an inner pocket in his suit jacket and placing them on the table.   
“While we will handle the billing, we would appreciate it if you saved all your receipts and turned them in with an itemized expense report monthly. Any health or dental expenses may be billed to us as well. You three are dismissed, Levi I would like to speak with you in my office. I want to go over the details of your team’s first assignment so that you can have them prepped and ready.” 

When the two older men left, it was just Hange and the whatever trio.

“I knew this was going to be good!” Hange said.

The trio gave her a series of odd looks.

“We should get to know each other since until the moles are found out, you three are ghosts in the company. Are you all old enough to drink? Great! We’re going out on Friday! I’ll text you all the details.”

She didn’t bother to wait for them to answer before she got up and left the room.

“Does she even have our phone numbers?” Jean asked after she left.

“I hope not,” Annie replied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but hopefully that's not a problem.

Eren rolled down the window as Armin pulled along the side of the curb.

“Mornin’ Jean!”

The tall man being hailed gave a half-grin as he walked over and grasped the handle of the backseat door. He pulled it open and climbed in, automatically reaching for the seatbelt.

“This is Armin,” Eren introduced the driver, “and that’s my sister, MIkasa.” Jean turned his attention to the woman in the backseat who had turned away from the window she had been gazing out of to fix him with a cool stare.

“Guys, this is Jean. He’s interning in the same office as me.”

Jean was still staring at Mikasa, looking similar to a caught rabbit. Eren wasn’t concerned because she typically had that effect on people.

Armin offered his own greeting as he drove out of the parking lot.

After a minute of silence from the backseat, they heard Jean speak, “I uh, I like your hair.”

Eren and Armin burst out laughing.

Half an hour later they were walking through the lobby, Armin splitting off to head towards the R&D Department. The other three rode the elevator up to Operations, Mikasa going to the main offices while Jean and Eren headed towards their own.

“I had no idea you were so smooth,” Eren snickered when they were alone.

“Shut up. I wasn’t expecting a guy like you to have a sister like that.”

They arrived at the door to their office, Eren reaching out and swiping his ID through the reader before reaching out and pulling the door open.

“Are you going to awkwardly creep on her every day, now?” he asked, holding the door behind him for Jean to grab.

“Seriously, though,” Jean began, ignoring Eren’s question, “Is she seeing anyone?”

Eren Jaeger was capable of some very evil grins, Jean decided.

“No, but you’re welcome to try. Armin and I would love to watch this train wreck.”

Jean sneered at him, throwing up his middle finger just as Levi stepped out of the break room, rag and a bottle of spray cleaner in hand, to witness.

“I see you’re living up to expectations, Kirschtein.”

Eren spun around, already laughing.

“Good morning, Levi.”

“Morning. You three are expected down in the labs with Hange at 9:00. Be sure to pay attention. She may be out of her mind, but she knows her shit.”

“Sounds good,” Eren said.

“It sounds horrible. Hange’s a freak.”

Jean glanced unwillingly at the bottle of cleanser Levi was holding, accidentally meeting the older man’s eyes as he did so, caught.

“Everyone’s a freak when you get to know them well enough,” Eren said, glancing past Levi into the break room. “Did you happen to start a pot of coffee or should I do that now?”

“Go start a pot. I’ve got some filing you can do when you’re done.”

-

It was 9:03 and Levi was staring at Erwin from across the blond’s office, the door shut at his back.

Erwin was on the phone.

Levi was well aware that Erwin was purposefully drawing out the conversation with whomever was on the other end in an effort to irritate him. Erwin knew what he wanted to talk about. Levi knew Erwin knew, because Erwin could read minds.

Once it became apparent that Levi wasn’t going to leave, Erwin sighed, finished up the call and turned the full weight of his gaze on Levi.

“What’s the deal with those kids?”

Erwin just raised an eyebrow.

“Who the hell agrees to break the law for a company they haven’t even worked a day at?”

“I imagine they have their own reasons.”

“I imagine you know those reasons.”

“If I did, they would not be mine to tell.”

Levi gave his best level-eyed stare, but Erwin was long-since immune.

“Erwin, what are you pulling these kids into?”

“I’m not pulling them into anything. I am merely presenting them with an opportunity.”

Levi paused. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he got the impression that there was more than one conversation going on. Erwin did that sort of thing on purpose. He would say something that was technically true, but usually meant something other than what you thought it meant.

He was doing it now.

“An opportunity.”

Erwin hummed a confirmation but didn’t say anything else. The blond moved his computer mouse around for a few seconds, clicking, and then moved his hands to the keyboard to type.

“You’re putting them in danger.”

“I imagine they know the risks as well as anyone. Maybe more.” Again, Erwin was dropping hints.

“Did you recruit them the way you recruited me?”

“No. You were a unique case.”

That, Levi couldn’t argue with. After a moment, he turned around and left the office. He hadn’t really been expecting to get anything useful out of Erwin. The man could talk circles around anyone and Levi struggled to have normal conversations with people he considered friends.

Of course, since he had friends like Hange, the fault for a lack of normal conversations wasn’t entirely on him.

He sat back down at his desk, logged in, and promptly received a new e-mail from Erwin.

**Levi:**

**You’ll have to show them what to look for.**

**-Erwin.**

The man had probably typed it while Levi had been in the office just now. Levi wondered if Erwin was sitting at his desk with a stupid smirk on his face and telling himself how funny he was.

He deleted the e-mail and leaned back in his chair.

He knew what Erwin was getting at, what he wanted Levi to turn these kids into. He didn’t want to. He really didn’t want to.

It didn’t stop him from reaching for his phone and dialing a number he hadn’t called in years.

If he was going to do it right and keep these kids out of jail, he couldn’t do it by himself.

-

Levi walked over to where the interns were settling into their desk as they came back from lunch. They still looked a little dazed from Hange’s lecture.

“I need you three to go on a field trip on Saturday morning. Is that going to be a problem?”

They looked a little surprised and glanced at each other.

“It’s no problem for me,” Annie said.

Jean also agreed.

Eren frowned, thinking.

“I’ll have to come up with something to tell Mikasa.”

“Plans with your girlfriend?” Levi asked. He wasn’t looking to get the kid in trouble for cancelling a date, but Saturday was the only time that worked.

“No, sister. I room with her.”

“Must be awkward bringing dates home for the night,” Annie said, barely keeping the smirk off her face.

Levi raised an eyebrow at her. He hadn’t taken her for someone with a sense of humor… or a personality.

Jean snickered.

“You have no idea,” Eren said, “I had her meet the person I was seeing _once_ , and then I got dumped right after.”

“What did she do, threaten them?” Levi asked, curious.

“Yes. _Imaginitively_.”

“So your sister scares away your girlfriends?” Annie asked, not quite keeping the building amusement out of her voice.

“Dates. I think the last time I got to the relationship phase was in high school before Mikasa found out about it.” Levi couldn’t help but file away the information that Eren was currently single.

“Really, that long? That’s pretty sad,” Jean said. “So wait, Mikasa scares girls away from you?”

Eren scratched nervously at his neck, like he wanted to say more, “Not intentionally, but yeah. She terrifies them.”

“I’m still asking for her number.”

“So can you get away from your overprotective sister or not?”

“Yeah, I can tell her I’m going to play disc golf with some guys from work. She shouldn’t get too worked up if she thinks it’s a group thing.”

“You look like the kind of asshole that plays disc golf,” Levi said.

“Asshole?”

“Asshole.”

Eren gave a quick half-grin and Levi’s heart flipped. Oh. He had a crush on his intern. A big, stupid school-girl crush. He didn’t just think the kid was good-looking, he wanted to write his name and draw hearts around it. Fuck his life.

He didn’t even know how old the kid was. Although, it probably said on that file Erwin gave him. He probably should have done more than scan them. Now that he thought about it there was something else he needed to discuss. He had a working plan for how he was going to utilize these three. All of them had graduated with some sort of engineering degree.

“Which one of you is the software engineer?”

“That’d be me,” Eren said. Of course it would be. It couldn’t be the blonde who would be able to comfortably work with Levi without speaking a word. It couldn’t be fucking Seabiscuit.

It was the one that Levi was having a very hard time keeping his thoughts in the strictly professional realm.

“You were the double major?”

“Uh, yeah. Software and robotic engineering,” Eren said, ducking his head almost shyly. It wasn’t fair for someone to be that cute.

Even Annie looked impressed.

“Did you build robots and fight them?” she asked.

This time Eren actually blushed.

“Yeah, I was on a team with a couple of friends. One of them is here as an intern, too.”

“So you build killer robots. When the Matrix happens, it’s your ass I’m kicking,” Levi said. Was that supposed to be flirting? He was terrible at flirting. He should stop.

Eren let out an amused chuckle.

He was really good-looking when he smiled.

-

The rest of the week passed quickly. Hange familiarized the interns with the projects that were most at risk for espionage for a few hours a day while Levi did prep work for his own project with them.

Friday afternoon rolled around and Levi found himself seated at his desk, going through a mental checklist for the next day when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end.

He pretended to ignore the eyes he could feel drilling into his back. Erwin was the only person he had ever met whose stare could be physically felt. Right now, it was tapping him impatiently on the shoulder.

He refused to turn around. If Erwin wanted to speak to him, he could approach him like a normal person rather than eye-laser the back of Levi’s head from his office doorway.

After a moment, he heard soft footsteps approaching.

“Levi.” A large hand placed itself on his shoulder.

“Hm?”

Another folder was silently slid in front of him.

“You should be able to make good use of these.”

Then he was gone. Weird bastard.

Levi waited until he was sure Erwin had retreated to his office before flipping the cover of the folder open. Inside were several personnel files. Erwin’s timing really couldn’t have been better. Now they had a very specific direction to go in.

Without reading through them, Levi shut the folder and slipped it into his laptop bag. He had homework tonight.

-

Saturday morning found Levi waiting in the parking lot of a diner six blocks from Klorva’s main offices and fending off Hange through text.

_I can’t believe you didn’t invite me along on your field trip!_

**_Not a field trip._ **

_Taking all three of the kids without me is hurtful._

**_Not a social event._ **

_Levi, the children need a mother._

**_Am I supposed to be the dad in this scenario?_ **

_If we’re not going to date them we might as well raise them together as a family._

**_Every word in that sentence was disturbing._ **

_They wouldn’t even come out last night because of you._

**_Not my problem._ **

A blue car pulled in and parked. Levi watched as the two front doors opened and an irritated Jaeger and shaken Kirschtein climbed out.

He raised a brow in question as they walked up.

“Next time, I’ll drive,” Jean was saying.

“It’s fine. Look, we’re here, all right?” Eren replied before turning his attention to Levi and his face morphed into something far more welcoming, “Morning!” It was too early in the morning for Levi’s heart to be doing acrobatics.

“Morning.”

A little white car pulled in a few spaces away and Annie climbed out, holding a tray of coffees. She walked up and passed them out.

Levi took a sip and tasted black tea.

He glanced at her.

“Eren said you prefer tea, right?”

“Yes,” Levi replied, sliding his gaze over to Eren, who shrugged.

“I always see you pour a cup of hot water in the breakroom and I noticed you usually have used tea bags in your garbage.”

“I hope this isn’t the beginning of a stalker relationship.”

“Only if you want it to be,” Eren grinned. Levi let out a snort of amusement.

“If we’re all set, we should get going,” Levi said, grabbing his keys from his pocket and walking towards a car the color of granite. Annie and Jean climbed in the back while Eren took shotgun.

“This is a nice car.”

“Thanks. Don’t break anything.”

“No promises.”

Levi drove them to a small office park consisting of a few small, two-story buildings. A sign at the entrance to the parking lot listed a number of businesses that operated out of them.

“Realtors and dentists?” Jean asked.

“There’s also lawyers, a print shop and some other crap.”

Levi parked the car, waited for everyone to get out and then walked to a side entrance. There was a man waiting in the carpeted hallway about a third of the way down. Levi walked right up to him.

“How long were you waiting?”

“About five minutes,” the man answered.

Levi turned back to the three people standing behind him.

“This is Farlan. He’s going to teach you some things that can get you arrested.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Insert training montage*
> 
> The whole reason I started this story in the first place was because I wanted to write office sex, so there's really a lot of plot in this mutli-part PWP and... no porn. Don't worry, I'll fix that, eventually.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. My schedule has cleared up significantly so I hope I can do semi-regular updates in the future. Fingers crossed.

Levi leaned against the wall as the three sat in office chairs arranged in a semi-circle around Farlan.

“Sorry to have you all come here on your day off,” Farlan began, an easy smile on his face as he introduced himself more properly to the three. Levi watched the scene play out. Farlan had a knack for lowering the defenses of the people around him, putting them at ease, making them feel like they could trust him.

It wasn’t something Levi had ever been able to do. Not that he had really needed to.

Farlan shook each of their hands, using his left hand to touch their elbows or shoulders, looking them each in the eye, and doling out individual greetings. Levi knew from personal experience that Farlan made an art form out of first impressions. The other man already had each of their names committed to memory and was asking them about themselves in interest.

Farlan knew how to make people like him. How to make them trust him.

“Say Levi, do you have those files you were talking about?”

He pushed himself away from the wall to hand over the envelope Erwin had given him.

Farlan opened it up and Levi couldn’t help but notice the spark in the man’s eye. Levi wondered how bored he was these days.

“All right let’s see what we have.” The blond man pulled out the files and spread them out in front of him. The interns peered over curiously.

Farlan’s gaze swept over the files briefly, picking one up and handing it to Levi.

“I’m guessing you’re going to handle this one?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Who are you going to work it with?”

“Eren,” Levi said, pointing towards the intern in question who perked up at his name.

Farlan nodded then turned towards Annie and Jean, giving each a considering look as he apparently made up his mind.

“Well I suppose we should get started. Have any of you ever run a con before?”

-

Levi’s back was against the outside of the building. He was watching the breeze play with the leaves on the trees that lined the parking lot, mind drifting back years, when Farlan walked up.

“I’m giving them a short break.”

Levi nodded.

Farlan let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall next to him. He was silent for a beat before he opened his mouth again.

“So how’s your mother?”

“Healthy,” Levi replied, a slight smile crossing his face.

“That’s great,” Farlan said and the smile on his face was genuine.

They fell into silence for a moment wondering if they should bother broaching old subjects. For once, it was Levi who broke the silence.

“How are those three picking this stuff up?”

Farlan’s eyes cut over to him sharply. Levi knew immediately the taller man had things he wanted to say, but was debating how much he should. It piqued his own curiosity since very little bothered his old friend.

“Levi, where did you find them?”  
  
“I didn’t. Erwin did.”

“That son of a bitch? Figures.” The mere mention of the name had Farlan’s face twisting into a scowl. He was not Erwin’s fan. To be fair, Levi originally hadn’t been either. It was almost strange that he was now at a point of grudging camaraderie with Erwin.

“Why?”

“They’ll do fine. If anything, they seem a little zealous.”

“Oh?”

“They’re not good kids. They remind me too much of us to be good kids.”

“Hmm,” Levi replied thoughtfully. He was reminded of all the questions he had about why three young interns with obviously bright futures ahead of them would risk it all to get involved in what was clearly an illegal scheme.

“They remind you of us, huh?”

“Yeah,” Farlan said, checking his watch and pushing away from the wall, “they do.”

He was about to walk away when he paused and looked back at Levi with a familiar light in his eyes.

“Just make sure what happened to Isabel doesn’t happen to them.”

“That _would_ be a travesty,” Levi agreed, “I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”

-

The ride back to the diner in the late afternoon was quiet as if everyone in the car was being swallowed by their thoughts.

When he pulled into the parking lot of the diner where they had met that morning, Jean and Annie climbed out of the car, but Eren hesitated, grabbing the door handle without opening it. He looked like an idea had occurred to him.

After a second, he turned towards Levi and held out his hand, Levi narrowed his eyes a little but took it for the handshake. Eren’s left hand moved to his elbow.

“Thanks for driving us out today, Levi,” he said looking into his eyes with a warm smile.

“Are you practicing Farlan’s techniques on me?”

“Maybe. Is it working?”   Levi’s worn out little heart stupidly skipped a beat. He was not going to pursue Eren, he was _not_. Not even if he flashed those big green bug eyes his way.

“I already made my impressions of you.”

“Yes, but now I’m establishing a positive feeling about me for you to use as a foundation for trusting me.”

“Let go of my hand you little shit.” Eren took his hand back and laughed. Levi could not find it within himself to be irritated when every place Eren had touched him burned.

He hated to admit it to himself but it wasn’t just that Eren was good-looking, Levi liked his personality, too. It made him want to punch the younger man.

“Levi, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“How do you know Farlan?”

Levi raised an eyebrow, “You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

“I don’t have the patience,” Eren confessed, “I prefer to be direct.”

Levi gave him a long look before leaning back in his seat with a sigh. He liked that about Eren, too. Maybe he really should punch him.

“Farlan and I were conmen back in the day. Our group used to target corporations. Bigger payouts.”

“And now you work for a corporation.”

“The irony. You can blame Erwin for that.” Levi could feel the old irritation spread across his face. He had long since gotten over the anger and had even managed to become friends with the man, but he didn’t have to like how it happened.

“What did he do?”

“He caught us. Offered a deal that he wouldn’t turn us in if I worked for him.”

“What’s so special about you?” Eren asked, face earnest. Levi furrowed his brow.

“That question sounds like an insult.” Eren didn’t even flinch, but his mouth pulled up a little at the corners as he retried asking his question.

“I mean why did he want you? You caught his eye for a reason.”

“I’m surprisingly good with a computer.”

“Internet scams?”

“Partly.”

Eren was quiet for a moment in thought, hand running along the length of the seatbelt that hung next to him.

“Erwin’s pretty goal-oriented, huh?”

Levi could feel his face making a strange expression but was powerless to stop it. Eren noticed, quirking an eyebrow at him.

“You don’t think so?”

“I’m trying to think if I’ve ever heard a bigger understatement.”

-

When Monday morning rolled around and Levi walked into the office, he was surprised to see Hange sitting at his desk eyeing him with an unusually serious expression.

“What happened?” he asked, setting his briefcase down on the floor.

“Nothing. I was just wondering if you think they’ll be able to pull this off.”

“We have a game plan.” He didn’t know if that was actually reassuring or not. He was actually terrible at trying to cheer people and Hange knew it. It was mystifying him why she apparently came to him for support.

Hange bit at the inside of her mouth for a moment.

After a moment she shook herself and her entire demeanor changed.

“I still can’t believe you didn’t bring me with! How come you never want to introduce me to your old friends?”

“I didn’t bring you because we wanted to be productive and this is the first time in years I’ve seen _any_ ‘old friends’.”

“Those are terrible excuses.”

Levi moved around Hange to start up his computer, looking pointedly at his occupied chair while doing so. She pretended not to notice.

“Are you going to have them spun up on that tech by Wednesday?” he asked.

“Why Wednesday?”

“Because Eren and Jean start their assignments then.”

“They’ll know everything they need to look for… what about Annie?”

“We still need to create an opening for her.”

Hange spun in the chair to face him.

“How do you plan to do that?” she asked, curiously.

“By getting someone into very deep trouble.”

“You know Levi, I have a real knack for that,” Hange said, suggestively.

“You have your own projects. Stay away from mine.”

“Yours seems like more fun, though.”

“No.”

She laughed before standing up and moving out of his way.

“In all seriousness though, if you need anything, just ask. It’s my work that’s being targeted after all.”

Hange was a genius and that was her problem. Her work had the central theme of focusing on reducing power and energy costs. Even if the products she created didn’t necessarily resemble each other it was the underlying technology that was the real target of A & P Electric.

Levi looked back at her.

She had flint in her eyes. Her research was like her child.

“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know,” he said, and meant it.

The smile she gave him was brilliant.

-

When the interns all arrived, Levi brought them into the meeting room. Once they were all seated, Levi started.

“Starting on Wednesday, Kirschstein you’ll be moving to another department to look for a mole. You’re going to pose as a transfer employee from another branch.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jaeger, you’ll be working at A & P Electric as a janitor through a temp service; I want you to investigate a couple of their employees while you’re there. We want to access their systems if possible. Also, you’re going to help us I.D. a target for Annie.”

“Understood.” Levi thought it was ridiculous how attractive Eren was when he got that insane, determined look in his eyes. He shouldn’t think that. Insane people were not sexy.

“Leonhardt, you’ll be on the sidelines for a little bit longer. Farlan wants to train you in the evenings after work. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No problem,” She replied evenly, as if he had just delivered the weather report. He liked that about her. It was always easier to deal with people when you didn’t have to worry about their feelings exploding all over you.

Levi put down the files he had received from Erwin on the table.

“You saw these a little on Saturday. This one,” he reached over and slid the file on top in front of Jean, “is yours. Rico Brzenska is in our Logistics department whose employee account has shown suspicious activity. I personally believe she’s been hacked. Most likely by our mole.”

Jean nodded and began looking through the file in earnest.

The rest of the dossiers were in front of Eren.

“You’ve got your work cut out for you. Every one of those is an A & P employee that I want you to keep tabs on. We want to get a look at what they have on their computers. I’ll help you with that. You also need to be on the lookout for any vulnerable Research and Development employees. Anyone who seems like they’re in financial difficulties, going through a divorce, anything that can get us an opening for Annie to pose as the solution to their problems. We want someone who can get us information on what products they have in the works. Anything that resembles Hange’s projects we want to know about.”

Eren began to leaf through the files as he mulled over what Levi told him.

“Leonhardt, until Eren gets us some names you’ll be running support.”

-

Hange looked thoughtful when she stole a chair and pulled it up next to Levi after lunch, like some sort of chair kleptomaniac.

He was busy looking over what he had wrote, searching for errors in the lines of code. It was a variation of one he had used in the past but with a few updates to account for newer systems and a couple of tweaks for how it would execute.

He got to a good stopping point before rolling back in his seat slightly to look at her. She didn’t seem to notice right away, lost in thought. He waited.

After a minute she smiled and turned to him excitedly, her hands slamming down on his armrests as she leaned into his personal space.

“Levi, I have an idea!”

He heard Petra chuckle off to his right.

How dare she.

He’d shoot her a glare, but he wasn’t sure it was wise to avert his attention from Hange.

“Good for you.” The lack of enthusiasm in his voice was not an accident.

“I’m so excited, but I have to look and see what all the other research on it has been done. That will take some time… I can’t wait to start, though!”

Her eyes actually closed from the force of her smile.

“Get off me.”

She blinked down at him, apparently just now realizing she had been trapping him in his own chair.

“Oh, sorry! I’m just having trouble containing myself,” she said, releasing her hold on the armrests and leaning back.

“Why are you even telling me this?”  
  
“Hm? Oh, well I was talking to Eren earlier and he was telling me about a project he was working on in college and I thought, why not use the body itself as a source? I told him that and we started going over the possibilities of it and then I think I lost him and now he has an excuse for his sister.”

“What?”

“I want to take what he was doing and go a step further. Well, a couple of steps, actually. Levi, I want him. I want Eren.”

“ _What_?” He had no idea what she was talking about.

“When you’re done with him I want to work with him.”

“Oh.” He was still confused on everything else she said, but wasn’t about to ask for clarification.

“I just need you to keep him out of jail for me. Especially with his looks, they would eat him alive.”

“Eat who alive?” Hange spun around to see none other than Eren himself, handing Petra a stack of papers that she had asked him to proof read.

“Erwin’s giving a presentation to a local school PTA as part of a ‘giving back to the community’ program. We want to give them a technological update in their classrooms, blah, blah, blah… Can you imagine, though? All those middle-aged moms and Erwin walks in?”

With that, she pushed up out of her stolen chair and disappeared, three sets of eyes watching her go.

“Well that was entertaining,” Petra said, turning her attention back to her computer. He disagreed.

Ignoring Petra, Levi hooked a finger in the intern’s direction.

“Eren, come here for a sec.”

Eren took the vacated chair and rolled over to Levi. When he stopped, their forearms brushed against each other on their armrests and their knees bumped, shins sliding past one another. Levi momentarily forgot what he wanted.

“Yeah?” Eren asked, leaning closer to get a look at Levi’s computer screen.

“When I finish working on this code, I’m going to put it on a thumb drive. You’ll have to get it plugged into Eibringer’s computer –he’s in one of your files- and execute it.”

“Dennis Eibringer, Department Head of Technological Development at A&P.”

Levi turned to look at Eren in surprise, only to find that Eren was very close, his chin nearly touching Levi’s shoulder as he peered at the monitor.

He smelled good.

“Are you wearing cologne?” Levi internally cringed as he blurted out a question he hadn’t even realized he wanted to ask.

“Hm? Yeah,” Eren replied, turning towards Levi slightly to make eye contact. “It was a birthday present, I think it has an alligator on the bottle or something? Not anything I can normally afford.”

“It smells good.” Levi wanted to know why his mouth had disconnected from his brain and was running rogue. His face felt warm, he hoped he wasn’t blushing. Please don’t let him be blushing.

Eren’s eyes widened slightly, and then he smiled, lips pulling up slightly more on one corner than the other.

“Thanks,” he said, and Levi swore that voice was pitched lower than normal. “You know, this code is really clean. What does it do?” Eren was still speaking in that tone and the sound travelled down to the base of Levi’s spine. He mentally fumbled, aware that Eren had yet to look away from him.

“It, uh, does a couple of things. It sends me a ghost copy of every e-mail going in and out of his account, allows me to gain remote access…” he trailed off, caught in those stupid green eyes.

Eren glanced back to the screen.

“Cool.”

Did Eren’s hand just brush his? Levi’s eyes shot down to look. The younger man shifted and yes, their hands touched for a moment. Levi tried to focus back on the computer screen in front of him. Sixteen year old girls got excited over something like that, he was a grown man, he was not going to…

Eren leaned into him, arm pressed against his as he pointed at the monitor with his other hand, finger aimed at a line of code.

“What’s this?” Levi could feel the younger man’s breath slide past his jaw. Did sitting this close look innocent? It certainly didn’t feel innocent.

“That? Um…” Shit. What was that? He couldn’t think. All he knew was that Eren’s very warm, solid arm and shoulder were up against him and he smelled like something that short-circuited Levi’s brain.

There was a low chuckle next to him and Levi thought he was going to combust.

“I’ve probably been staring at this screen for too long. I can’t even think anymore. Want to go get some coffee? I’ll buy.” Levi was amazed he got that out in a normal voice that wasn’t all strangled with panic.

“Yeah, sure,” Eren said, finally leaning away and blinking up at Levi in a way that was unfairly cute. Levi looked away to save his work and lock his computer before standing up. Eren followed suit and the next thing Levi knew they were waiting for the elevator.

It wasn’t a date.

Dates weren’t a fifteen minute coffee break with a co-worker.

Dates did not include employee ID badges as part of their apparel.

They did involve fancy cologne, though.

Levi let his gaze slide over to Eren who currently leaning with an arm up against the wall, elbow at an even height with his shoulder. It pulled his dress shirt tighter against his chest and made him look like he was posing for a magazine shoot.

His face was turned up towards the lights above the elevator doors that indicated what floor the elevator itself was currently on. The line of his jaw stood out gorgeously.

Levi dragged his eyes back to the closed elevator doors with some difficulty.

What had possessed him to invite Eren along?

He couldn’t even function right when the younger man was around and he had only known him for a week. He didn’t think he had ever been attracted to someone so strongly in such a short amount of time before. It wasn’t just because Eren was good looking either. Although he was, he was very good looking.

Eren was relaxed around Levi when most people were put on edge. He joked with Levi. It wasn’t something the older man was used to. His personality was easy to get along with.

As the elevator arrived with a ding, Levi couldn’t help but feel like this man was going to fuck up his life.

He would be right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a hard time ending this chapter. I feel like it was all build-up, dialogue, and vague references to Levi's past.
> 
> Hopefully it was interesting, though. Thanks to everyone who is still reading and enjoy any festivities you may be engaging in this week.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with 20% more Mikasa.
> 
> In case you don't recognize somewhat obscure characters, this guy gets mentioned:  
> http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Dennis_Eibringer

There was a small coffee shop and snack bar on the third floor of the building that Levi led them to. It was more of an alcove, almost with three walls, the fourth completely open to the rest of the floor. Levi suspected it was designed that way to discourage employees from hiding in the shop for their shifts.

During the mornings, he usually avoided the shop like the plague since it was always busy, but the afternoons were calmer.

“Get whatever you want,” Levi said when they walked up to the counter.

“Just a regular black coffee, medium.”

“You don’t want any of this fancy shit they have?”

“Not really. I’m used to making a regular pot at home and filling a travel mug. It’s cheaper.”

They got their orders and Levi waited while Eren dumped a packet of sugar in his and stirred it before they found a small table in the corner. The younger man didn’t say anything when Levi pulled a packet out of his jacket pocket and opened it to reveal an alcohol wipe. He quickly swabbed it across the table before they set their cups down.

“I’m curious, I noticed you disinfect everything,” Eren started, “but you don’t seem to have any issues with physical contact with people. Your desk is neat and organized, but I wouldn’t say that it’s quite to an obsessive level.”

Levi slowly gave Eren what was probably an icy gaze, but the younger man didn’t flinch. He looked like he genuinely wanted to know.

“What, have you been watching me? That’s creepy.” Pot calling the kettle black, and he knew it. It was hard not to be defensive when people started pointing out your weird little ticks. A cold demeanor and insults were probably not the best choice when interacting with someone he liked being around, but Levi was not the sort of person who had ever won personality awards.

“No, I just happened to notice. It’s not like there’s anything bad about what you do, it’s just a little different,” Eren laughed, unfazed. He flashed Levi a disarming smile and the older man felt all his defenses desert him, never to be seen again in Eren’s presence.

“It’s a habit, more than anything.”

“How so?”

“My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was a kid. Between the chemo and the radiation, her immune system was shot so we used a lot of disinfectants. Cleaning the house from top to bottom helped keep my mind off of things.” The words were out before he could even think whether or not he wanted to say them.

Eren’s eyes softened to goo as he looked at him, sympathetic. Levi wanted to squirm. Being looked at that way wasn’t comfortable, even if it made Eren look even better, which Levi had previously felt was not possible.

“Did your mom…?”

“She recovered.”

He actually looked relieved like he was receiving news about his own mother.

“Good.”

“Why did you agree to this?”

“To getting coffee?”

 _Yes_.

“No. To Erwin’s project.”

Eren’s face clouded over as he leaned back. Levi had the feeling that the young man wasn’t completely with him for a moment.

“I promised myself when I got this internship that I’d do whatever it took.” That fierce look in his eyes was back and Levi was entranced. He unconsciously leaned forward, voice quiet.

“Whatever what took?”

Eren shook his head and his face cleared, choosing to stare into his coffee than look at Levi. He didn’t answer. Apparently it was a touchy subject.

Silence blanketed them.

Levi glanced around the small shop, noting that only one other table was occupied at this time of day by three middle-aged men huddled around a packet of papers they were apparently reviewing. The trio was talking quietly enough that Levi could only hear their conversation as indistinct murmurings.

Across from him Eren was still staring into his cup like it was a complicated math problem. Levi restrained a sigh as he tried to think of a way to salvage the conversation.

“How’s working with Hange going?”

Eren startled at the question, as though he had been deeply lost in thought. It was a moment of his face flickering trying to settle on something neutral before he answered carefully.

“It’s… interesting.” Levi recognized that as the polite version of stating that Hange was a raving lunatic.

“I’ll bet.”

“You seem to get along with her all right, though,” Eren said, expression sly.

Actually she gave him migraines. Levi got the impression that Eren suspected as much with the glint in his eyes. Suddenly, the younger man shot him a curious look, as though a thought had struck him.

“Why did we go through a temp service instead of the actual company?”

“Less thorough background checks. The temp service isn’t required to turn over the results of their checks, only whether or not you’re a convicted felon.”

Eren’s mouth formed an “O” of understanding. “So we go in through the weakest link?”

The guy was sharp.

“Exactly. The temp agency just asks about job history and wants to make sure there are no warrants out for your arrest. Beyond that, they don’t care.”

It was to best way to avoid having anyone at A&P wonder why a highly educated freshly graduated young man’s first attempt at work would be janitorial service. Especially when the ink on his degree wasn’t even dry yet. All A&P would know was whether or not Eren met the basic qualifications, which for janitorial work was primarily a high school diploma or GED.

“So is that an old trick from your days as a lawless scoundrel?”

“Drink your coffee.”

If anyone looked like a scoundrel, it was Eren with the roguishly grin he was sending Levi’s way, which only served to cause the older man’s heart to skip a beat. He was starting to feel uncomfortably warm.

Eren grinned as he raised his cup and shot him a quick wink as he took a sip. Levi’s heart flipped hard and failed to stick its landing, stumbling down to his kidneys. He didn’t think he could look at Eren anymore.

He tipped his own cup back taking a sip to hide his own face as much as anything.

After a moment he stood up.

“We should probably head back to the office.”

“Okay.”

The ride in the elevator back up to the office was a comfortable silence, something Levi relished. When they stopped on their floor, entering the small lobby for Operations, Levi stepped out first followed by Eren.

“Hey, Historia,” Eren greeted the receptionist with a small wave. The small blonde woman turned from her conversation with a tall freckled brunette woman, inexplicably blushing at the interruption. Levi chose not to comment, although he was surprised that Eren was apparently on a first name basis with the her.

They were almost back to their office when Eren nudged him gently with an elbow.

“Thanks for the coffee, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll buy next time.”

 _Next time?_ Levi couldn’t stop the tiny pull on the corners of his mouth.

“Sure. It’s a date.”

-

When Eren walked in his apartment that night behind Mikasa, he felt an edge of excitement that had refused to leave since Levi had explained what his assignment would be. At this point he had a fairly good grasp of Hange’s research, could appreciate the ingenuity in the designs.

He couldn’t help but feel nervous as he thought about actually going into enemy territory to search for it and more than a bit exhilarated.

“So Mikasa…”

“Hm?” she replied as she hung up her jacket on the coat hook next to the door.

“They want me to help on a project at work but it’s going to have some weird hours due to the testing schedules in Research and Development.”

He had her full attention now.

“Why do they want you?”

“Because of one of the research projects I listed on my application is related to the work they’re doing.” He had been rehearsing this lie all day in his head. Mikasa wasn’t the type to be easily fooled so he had used Hange to help him roleplay.

She had been uncomfortably eager. The scientist had also asked more probing questions about the projects he had worked on in college than Mikasa would ever think to.

“Which project was that?”

“Biotechnology.”

“Oh, your cyborg one?” she asked with a grin. His project hadn’t been nearly so sophisticated as that. It had involved using technology to repair or replace damaged connections between the brain and other parts of the body. He wanted to focus on helping paralysis patients.

“Yeah.”

“So what are they doing that relates to that?”  
  
“Research that’s actually a lot more advanced than what I was doing. They’re trying to use the patient’s body itself as a power source rather than a chargeable battery pack.”

She moved into the kitchen and Eren followed her.

“How are they going to do that?” she asked as she opened the fridge, eyeing its contents.

“Not sure, to be honest. I’m more involved with working on the receiver implants than the power source.”

She pulled out a package of chicken and set it on the counter before reaching back in and pulling out a bell pepper and some grated cheese.

“Chicken fajitas?”

Eren’s eyes lit up.

“Yes.”

“Well, let me know what your schedule is when you know it,” she said, grabbing a package of tortillas and moving over to the small closet pantry to get an onion.

“They wanted to run some tests on Wednesday, I don’t know the hours yet.”

“Okay.”

She turned to him then, a soft smile on her face.

“Eren, I’m happy for you. I know how much a project like this means to you.”

…And that is when he felt like an asshole for lying to her.

He smiled past the guilt in his throat. A biotechnology project like that would mean a lot for very good reasons, but the project he actually had was something he wasn’t sure Mikasa could understand.

She would certainly never condone it.

“We’ll get our first paycheck this Saturday. We should buy some furniture,” she mentioned, changing the subject for him.

Eren looked around the doorway of the kitchen into the living room. Two beanbag chairs were in front of a small television that sat on top of an old milk crate. An upended cardboard box served as an end table between the beanbag chairs.   Hooked up to the tv was a DVD player with a stack of movies to one side. The rest of the room was empty.

“Why, when you have all this,” Eren said, sweeping his arm expansively.

He felt a quick rap on the back of his head and looked to see she was holding a spatula.

“You think you’re funny, but you’re not.”

“Mikasa, I could do stand up.”

She didn’t reply, merely raised a very unsupportive brow at him before turning around and returning to fixing supper.

“I’m going to change out of my work clothes,” Eren said as he headed towards his bedroom. A few minutes later had him reclining in one of the luxurious beanbag chairs that Mikasa apparently took offense to.

Actually they were old and had lost some of their innards over the years. If he leaned back on one after about half an hour it would settle to the point that he’d be almost in the prone position.

They could probably stand to get a couch.

Mikasa came out a while later with a tray full of fajita fixings and plates, setting it on the floor between them.

“Your turn for dinner tomorrow.”

“I make a pretty mean cup ramen.”

“Real food, please.”

“It is real, we have a cupboard full, not imaginary in the least.”

“Grown-up food,” she said, flicking a piece of chicken at him. It hit him square in the forehead.

“Gross. Don’t play with your food, Mikasa,” he said, reaching up to wipe away the smear of grease.

She smirked to herself before folding up her fajita she had neatly built and taking a bite.

“Do we have any coconut milk? I can make curry.” She made a sound in response that could have meant anything with her mouth full.

“By the way,” Mikasa said when she swallowed her food, “Did you give Jean my phone number?”

A wide grin spread across Eren’s face.

“What? Why would I do that?”

“He texted me today. It was awkward.”

“At least you have prospects.”

“What about you?” she asked.

Eren had long ago learned that no matter what, the correct answer to this question was, ‘No.’

“I will die alone,” he said, hand solemnly over is heart.

She rolled her eyes at him.

“You should be focusing on the internship right now, anyway.”

“Yeah,” he agreed conviction stealing into his eyes, “That’s the priority.”

-

Tuesday morning when they picked Jean up outside his apartment, Eren could sense how jittery he was. Whether it was from the knowledge that he only had one more day until he started his mole hunt or the fact that he was sliding in next to Mikasa after his less-than successful texting ventures the day before.

“Good morning,” Armin said from the driver’s seat.

“Morning,” Jean replied, buckling his seat belt and trying to subtly glance at the girl on his right.

She was busy staring at her phone, ignoring everyone else.

“Annie said she’d bring in breakfast sandwiches today. Are you excited?” Eren asked turning around with a grin.

At that, Jean perked up noticeably.

“With homemade croissants, right?”

Armin turned his head towards the two giddy boys.

“She’s the other intern that works with you guys, right?”

“Yeah,” Eren replied. “She’s pretty quiet most of the time, but when she does talk she has some pretty snarky comments.”

“Your type of company, then.” Armin smirked, as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“On Friday she brought in muffins. They were the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” Jean piped in.

“Plus, she’s cute,” Eren said slyly, eyes cutting over to Armin.

“If you’re trying to make me feel envious, it’s working.”

Jean suddenly leaned forward, brow knitting together as a thought struck him.

“Eren, you’re not planning on going after her, are you?”

There was a moment where no one said anything and Eren and Armin shared a look. Even Mikasa was looking up from her phone, bottom lip drawn between her teeth. She almost looked like she was holding her breath.

Suddenly the inside of the car erupted in laughter.

“What?” Jean asked.

“Jean, I’m gay.”

The taller man looked momentarily struck.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“But the other day you were talking about old girlfriends…”

“I never used the word ‘girlfriends’. You guys were the ones who said that.”

Jean paused, dumbstruck as he thought back to that conversation. He couldn’t remember the exact wording, but he was fairly certain now that Eren had used the word ‘dates’ instead.

“I had no idea. You don’t really, I mean…” Jean was flustered, but Eren waved him off.

“Relax, it’s cool. I get it.”

“So… is that why you’re always hanging around Levi?”

Eren pursed his lips as Mikasa suddenly bolted forward next to Jean to look at him from between the two front seats.

“Who’s Levi?”

Eren turned towards his sister, eyeing her coolly. “He’s the guy in charge of us at the office.”

Jean froze, recalling the other significant part of that discussion about Eren’s love life. The Mikasa part specifically, which had seemed funny at the time. Now he saw that he might have accidently said too much.

Mikasa was giving Eren a suspicious look, like there was more to the story and he was just being difficult with her.

“Don’t worry, he’s just a short guy that glares at us, makes fun of us, and literally tells shit jokes. He always has this expression on his face like he’d just as soon gut you as talk to you.”

Mikasa looked at Jean, eyes narrowed as Eren let out a long sigh and Armin gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“Those are all exactly reasons to worry,” she said as her face darkened at she stared at Eren who was resolutely ignoring her.

Jean looked back at her questioningly trying to figure out why anything he said would make her more certain that her brother needed her protection. Then it clicked.

He turned to Eren.

“You have a weird type.”

-

When they got into the office and set their stuff down, Jean turned to Eren, scratching the back of his head nervously.

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to…”

“Nah, it’s all right. You were trying to help. It backfired and you did the exact opposite making everything so much worse, but you meant well.”

“You could have worded that better.”

“I could have,” Eren agreed.

Jean picked up his lunch bag and walked over to the fridge in the breakroom.

“To think I thought you were exaggerating the other day when you were telling us about Mikasa,” he said, opening the fridge door and placing his lunch inside. Eren handed him his own bag to put in.

“You didn’t even see anything. Trust me, she hasn’t gotten started,” the shorter man said, walking over to inspect the coffee pot to see if anyone had started any yet.

“Really?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m getting interrogated tonight when I get home.”

“That’s got to be rough.”

“I’m used to it,” Eren said, grabbing a filter and grounds to start brewing.

“So tell me, was I right?” Jean asked curiously.

“I can’t imagine you being right about anything, but for arguments sake, right about what?”

Jean shot him a dirty look and Eren snickered.

“About why you’re always talking to you-know-who.”

“I talk to everyone.”

“Oh come on. You two are always hanging around each other. Mikasa seemed to think there was something to worry about when I gave my glowing review.”

“Mikasa always thinks there’s something to worry about.”

Jean levelled Eren with a very flat stare.

“You know Jean, it’s starting to get really awkward how interested you are in my love life,” Eren said, fighting back a grin.

“You don’t seem like his type, Kirschtein,” Levi said causing them both to jump as he walked into the break room.

“How much did you hear?” Jean asked, “Because I feel like you heard the only sentence that makes me look bad.”

“You start off every day managing to make yourself look bad, why should you care about this?” Levi countered as he put his neatly boxed lunch in the fridge. He glanced over at Eren to see that the brunet had started the coffee. “If you want to report him for sexual harassment, I ask that you don’t go through me because I don’t want to deal with the paper work. Make Erwin do it.”

Eren snickered at Jean’s expense.

“That’s okay, I’m fairly certain I’m not Jean’s type, anyway,” Eren said, his eyes taking on a vaguely malicious glint while Jean’s face reddened.

“Shut up. From what I learned in the car this morning, you’re the one with the weird tastes.”

Levi lifted a brow.

“That’s what you all do in your carpool? Discuss Eren’s love life?”

“I was against it the entire time,” Eren defended.

Levi grabbed a cup from the cupboard, eyeing it carefully before placing it under the hot water lever on the coffee pot and filling it up. He dug a teabag out of the metal tin sitting on the back of the counter and placed it in his mug, letting it steep.

Annie chose that moment to enter the room, slipping past Jean with a quiet ‘Good morning’ to the group as she placed her lunch in the fridge. In one hand she gripped a plastic bag with rounded foil-wrapped objects inside.

“Now that we’re all here, I’m splitting you up. Kirschtein, you’re with Mike and Hange today at 8:30. Leonhardt, I’ve got someone coming in to meet with you at 9:00 in room 3012, it’s the little conference room down the hall by the elevators. Eren, you’re with me.”

“Cool,” Eren said distractedly, eyeing the bag Annie was holding, “Are those what I think they are?”

“Breakfast sandwiches,” Annie confirmed.

If Levi had wanted to get started working right away, he was defeated.

-

“Chances are you won’t actually see or hear anything while you’re playing janitor. Mostly I just want you to try and download this program onto Eibringer’s computer, but you probably won’t get a chance to do that right away. The biggest problem is that his computer is on a secure server like most of their technology department so I expect that there’s probably extra security for his physical office,” Levi said, dangling a USB keychain from his fingers. He and Eren were currently occupying a couple of chairs in the conference room next to Erwin’s office.

“Like needing a keycard to get in?” Eren asked, expression so determined and serious that Levi couldn’t look away.

“My guess is as good as yours. If you can, try and find out if there’s someone in the company he meets with or e-mails a lot that has a computer that might be easier to access,” Levi suggested, leaning closer to slide the keychain over, “You can put this code on theirs and we can get into the company-wide system, it’s going to be less secure and won’t have the top secret stuff we’re looking for but we might get lucky with something.”

There was a marked difference between the regular server and the secure server at A&P. Firstly, the secure server could only be accessed by physically logging into a computer that was hooked directly into it. Levi didn’t have a hope of gaining remote access. The regular system, Levi could get into remotely with enough time and resources, but it still wouldn’t be easy. A&P had decent cyber security.

Secondly, the people who had access to the secure server would be educated on all the different ways their computers could come under attack, whether it was from viruses or worms in e-mail attachments or phishing attempts. In short, they were less likely to be idiots on the internet.

It made Levi’s job a lot harder.

Eren reached over to grab the USB and Levi caught a whiff of his cologne. Levi kind of wanted to figure out what brand it was so he could go buy a bottle and spritz his pillow with it at night. Except that would be weird. Really weird.

He still wanted to, though.

“So stick this in someone’s computer that Eibringer has to work with… like another department head?”

“If it seems like they might have any reason to talk to Eibringer about any projects in development, like someone from finance that approves research funds or someone he has to give a project status report to. This program lets us look at their e-mails, so we might be able to pick something up.”

“Ultimately, though, we want access to Eibringer’s computer,” Eren stated, holding up the USB and watching it dangle from his fingertips.

“Him or anyone else on that secure server. The problem is, I have no idea who else is on that server, you’ll have to figure that one out,” Levi amended.

“I can do that.” Eren set the USB down on the table in front of him and swung his chair around to face Levi.

He sounded confident.

He looked confident.

Eren’s suit jacket was currently draped across the back of his chair, leaving him in his mint green work shirt with his slightly loosened tie and sleeves rolled up on the forearms. He had his top button undone and his hair falling into his eyes and he was currently leaning forward, arms on his knees as eyed Levi seriously.

The older man felt the intense weight of Eren’s gaze and tried not to swallow as he looked back at gorgeous intern in front of him.

“Let me give you my number,” Levi said before his brain could evaluate the words.

Eren’s eyebrows raised slightly, but Levi found his mouth wasn’t done digging him into a hole.

“In case you have any questions while you’re over at A&P or you find anything suspicious.”

That actually sounded like a very legitimate reason. The older man couldn’t help but feel a little relieved, like he had just dodged a bullet. A bullet he had misfired at himself, but still a bullet and still dodged. It counted.

“Okay,” Eren said, digging out his phone, unlocking it, and opening up his contacts. After a moment, he handed it over, “Just punch it in.”

Levi took the phone, feeling disgustingly giddy as he input the digits before handing it back. Eren messed with it for a moment, presumably filling in the rest of Levi’s contact information before setting it down.

A second later Levi’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see he had a new text.

_This is my number. -Eren_

It was stupid how warm his chest felt.

“We should probably wrap up for today. Tomorrow you’re supposed to be at A&P by 10:00, are you going to be able to get there all right? I know you carpool.”

“I was going to carpool in and take the subway from here over.”

“I can give you a ride if you need it. It’s probably part of my job.” Levi wasn’t sure where all this confidence was coming from. Being alone in a car with Eren was a nerve wracking thought. It wasn’t like how they were alone right now because they were at work and anyone could walk in. It wasn’t even like last weekend when Levi had taken them to meet Farlan and Eren had stayed in the car for a few minutes to interrogate Levi because then they were in a very public parking lot.

 

“Getting there isn’t a problem. Getting home might be. The subway doesn’t run very close to my apartment.”

“I’ll give you a ride home then.” Somehow that was worse than driving Eren over to A&P for the start of his janitorial shift. Driving him home _in the dark, just the two of them_ , seemed so much more intimate.

“Won’t you be done working for hours by then?”

“If you’re going to be infiltrating a company illegally for us, the least I can do is give you a ride home, after your shifts” Levi answered, “Besides, I’ll be working late every night that you’re over there in case something comes up.”

“Like what?”

“Like you get caught and I have to do damage control.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Eren smiled, picking up the USB again and dropping it into his shirt pocket.

“Let’s hope,” Levi agreed.

-

It was later that night when Levi was at home, just finishing washing the dishes after his dinner that his phone went off.

Drying his hands, he stepped over to where it was resting on the counter, checking the screen.

He had a new message.

Opening it up, he saw it was from Eren.

_Thanks in advance for the ride home tomorrow. I really appreciate it._

He quickly tapped out a reply.

**_Don’t mention it._ **

The response was almost instant.

_I’ll owe you when this is all over._

Levi really hoped that Eren didn’t end up in jail over this, because he was starting to realize something.

He really wanted to date Eren.

 ** _You can buy me dinner and we’ll call it even._** Levi typed in the words, thumb hovering over the ‘send’ button.

He slowly moved his thumb towards the ‘delete’ arrow. Then, in a moment of what he could only describe as crazed possession, his thumb darted back down and hit ‘send’. He stared at his phone, heart pounding as his mind tried to comprehend what he had just done.

He watched in detached horror as the little dots appeared signifying the person on the other end was typing a response.

This was awful. Time did not normally pass this slowly. The five seconds he waited easily lasted a minute each, probably even ten minutes.

Maybe he should throw his phone out his window before he could see Eren’s response.

Before he could do something drastic, it winked into existence on his screen.

 _Deal_.

Oh. Levi smiled, something large and idiotic stretching across his face.

Well now he really had to keep Eren out of jail because they had a date.

A very romantic date that Eren didn’t know was a date.

Levi went into his bedroom and plugged his phone in for the night. If he could just get through the car ride tomorrow without acting like a creepy lovesick pervert he’d be fine.

He sat down heavily on his bed, leaning forward onto his elbows and pinching the bridge of his nose with a groan.

There was no way he was going to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkward Levi is awkward.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I was writing this, I was listening to music and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" came on. That may have bludgeoned its way into this chapter. 
> 
> Also, I have no idea if I'm consistent with the spelling of names. I know I have been using different spellings for different fics and I checked about two chapters of this fic to see if I was writing Kirstein or Kirschtein before I got distracted. If any of you notice and differences, let me know.

Wednesday was a lot more boring than Levi had anticipated. With Annie being the sole remaining pseudo-intern, it was a lot quieter than he had become accustomed to. Eren had stopped in just briefly enough to check in and make Levi’s pulse race before heading off to the subway station. Levi had managed to hand him a subway pass paid for with a company account without blushing, so he considered that a small victory.

He didn’t expect to hear much from Kirschtein or Eren today. Both would be shown around their “new jobs” and trained in. Eren would be in the office at Klorva two days a week when he didn’t have shifts at A&P, but Kirschtein was currently working in Logistics and would be spending every day there until they figured out who their mole was.                                                                                                                        

He had sent Annie to help Petra with poring through company e-mails and expense reports, looking for anything that might indicate a mole.

Levi himself was reviewing the background checks he had made on key personnel at A & P, looking for anything out of the ordinary or exploitable.

It kept him occupied most of the day, but in the back of his mind he was mentally ticking down the hours until he had to go pick up Eren. He wasn’t sure if he was eagerly anticipating it or dreading it. Time seemed to slow down but when Annie and Petra broke for lunch, Levi was left wondering what had happened to the morning.

An eternity later he blinked and they were leaving for the day.

They had barely been gone when Levi sensed a presence behind him.

He could literally feel breath on the back of his neck before he bothered to acknowledge his visitor.

“What do you want Hange?”

“Just checking on you. It’s hard when the kids grow up and move out,” she said, swinging around to his side where he could see her in his peripheral.

“What do you actually want?”

“A sodium-ion battery that puts lithium to shame. Can’t show its cations in its parent ore shame.”

He was going to let that one go…

“I meant what do you want from me?” He wasn’t sure he actually wanted to know, but if she was going to tell him anyway, it was better to cut past the bullshit that she would say to get to that point.

“Of course, most commercial lithium comes from brines in South America rather than ores…”

He apparently did not cut past enough bullshit.

“Hange,” Levi said, the warning in his tone enough to get the scientist’s attention.

“Sorry, I’ve got electrodes on the brain. I should probably get out of the lab more.”

Levi disagreed. Hange should be kept locked in the lab and maybe let out for monitored exercise and fresh air.

He finally turned to face her and took in her appearance. Locks of hair were falling out of her ponytail and ink was smudged on one of her cheeks. There was also a weird pattern imprinted on her face and it took Levi a moment to figure out it was from the metal spiral of a notebook that she had apparently fallen asleep on. That was probably were the ink smears had come from.

“Sleep in your lab?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I was writing up a report and next thing I know I’ve drooled all over it. What time is it? Everyone’s gone.” She moved from standing too close to Levi’s chair to lean against his desk, crossing one ankle over the other and looking around the office as if expecting other employees to magically pop out of the walls.

“When were you home last?” Levi asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Monday.”

“It’s Wednesday.”

“Huh… go figure.” She didn’t seem the least bit concerned that she hadn’t been home in two days.

“Hange, go home. Shower.” She raised an arm and sniffed to see if she did, indeed, need a shower. Whatever conclusions she came to were not voiced.

“Is it late or early?”

“Late.”

“I should maybe take tomorrow off. I probably need to go through the food in my fridge. I bet it’s all moldy. Yuck.”

Trying not to think too much about that, Levi glanced at the screen of his phone, tapping it on to check the time.

“We should both be going. I have to pick up Eren.”

“ _Oh?_ Secret rendezvous?” The zealous gleam in her eyes was really off-putting. He wondered if she practiced it, but then realized she was strange enough for it to be natural.

“If it was secret, I wouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Maybe you’re bad at keeping secrets.”

“Maybe you’re an idiot. I’m picking him up from A & P and giving him a ride home.”

“Well that’s boring. You should have an illicit affair with someone from the office,” Hange said, huffing out air in disappointment.

“Illicit?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow. The most illicit thing he had done… well, actually he used to do a lot of illicit things. These days, however, his life was a lot quieter. A little monotonous and according to Hange ‘sad’ and ‘lonely’ but it was fairly peaceful.

“Yes. Then you can tell me about it and I’ll live vicariously through you.”

“Just have your own damn affair.”

“I don’t have the time. You have to do it for both of us,” she _insisted_.

“Get Erwin to.”

“No, Erwin would only have mind-numbingly dull affairs. They’d be very proper and involve years-long courtships consisting of chaperoned lunch dates and risqué hand-holding.”

Levi squeezed his eyes shut.

“What makes you think I would have interesting affairs? No – what gave you that impression of Erwin?” Since apparently the blonde took romantic cues from the Victorian era and possibly the Amish.

“Erwin is too goal-oriented. He couldn’t put more effort than that into a relationship. Do you know why he’d take it so slow, Levi? So he could put off marriage as long as possible because that would be too distracting.”

“So maybe he has trysts instead.” Wait. Levi was not supposed to be encouraging this conversation. He needed to escape it.

Hange’s grin was wide.

“This is why we’re best work friends.”

Levi didn’t think they were. He didn’t dare vocally disagree, though. Instead, he logged off his computer and began to pack up his desk for the night.

“C’mon,” he said, pushing in the chair of his desk and walking towards the front of the office, “time to call it a day.”

He waited by the door until she caught up, nearly tripping over her own feet from exhaustion. He was thankful she took the subway to work instead of driving. She’d probably fall asleep at the wheel.

-

Levi pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store two blocks from A & P and waited for Eren to show up. He would have picked him up in A & P’s parking garage, but it was fitted with security cameras and Levi didn’t particularly want to risk his car showing up on their security footage just in case.

He didn’t have to wait long before there was a soft knock on the passenger’s side window. He pressed the door unlock and tried to ignore how his heart pounded as Eren climbed in, wearing gray khakis and a button-down work shirt with the A & P logo embroidered above the left breast pocket. He had a beat-up old backpack that he placed on the floor at his feet.

It was unfair how someone could look good in anything they wore.

“Thanks,” Eren said as he buckled up.

“Yeah,” Levi responded, once again having trouble with his words.

The sun had just about set, the last few rays streaking the sky in bright colors that were fading to navy on the opposite horizon. In another few minutes it would be dark.

Levi was suddenly very aware of how quiet it was in his car and how alone they were. Trying not to focus on that, he reached over and turned on the radio. He needed some noise to help him out.

_“…Ba-by, I can’t hold it much longer. It’s getting stronger and stronger...”_

Not Marvin Gaye, though. Marvin was just going to make it worse.

Levi hurriedly tried to change the station but accidently knocked the volume up a few bars.

“And when I get that feeling, I want sexual healing,” Eren sang, slightly off-key but without a hint of self-consciousness.

Levi froze, turning his head towards him with an eyebrow lifted. Eren’s smile was wide and just a touch impish, fully aware that he was acting a little bit like an idiot in front of a senior co-worker.

“Where you even born when this song came out?” Levi wasn’t even sure if he himself had been born when the song came out.

“No, but this song is timeless,” Eren grinned at him, settling back into his seat and demonstrating his barely better than average singing talents and that he did, in fact, know all the lyrics.

Levi backed out of the parking spot, trying to keep the smile off his face. He was about to turn out of the parking lot when Eren slid a hand down the strap of his seatbelt over his chest, his shoulders moving like water along with the beat, a ridiculously wide smile on his face as he sang along to Levi from the passenger’s seat.

“Get up, get up, get up, get up. Let’s make love tonight.” There was another roll of his shoulders to punctuate the line.

“You’re going to make me blush,” Levi said, hoping desperately that he wasn’t already doing just that.

“Haven’t you ever had another man serenade you with Marvin Gaye?”

“No, and I can’t say that I ever wanted it.” This was true right up until Eren did it and it turned out to be a little too amusing and just enough of a turn on that Levi was focusing more on his passenger than the road.

“I also know an embarrassing amount of Usher.”

“At least you know it’s embarrassing.”

“It doesn’t get embarrassing until I try to dance like him.”

This time Levi did smile.

“Okay, it might be worth it to see that.”

“Play your cards right,” Eren said with a wink before laughing.

Levi honestly couldn’t tell if the younger man was being flirtatious or just messing around, but his heart was pounding harder regardless.

He needed to distract himself.

“How did your first day go?”

It was like a switch was flipped and Eren was all business.

“Mostly I was shown around the building. I have this guy named Thomas training me for about a week, then I’ll be doing my own rounds. They rotate floor assignments so eventually I’ll make my way to Eibringer’s office.”

“Good,” Levi said. “Keep me updated.”

“Will do.”

It was quiet for a moment and Levi flicked his eyes over to Eren, who had taken to staring out the window. Levi let his gaze travel up the length of the younger man’s torso and neck before looking back at the road.

He felt sharp _want_ stab him right in the chest and struggled to focus on driving.

He was beginning to wish he hadn’t killed the conversation by speaking about work. Even the radio wasn’t helping, just playing advertisements for car dealerships. He tried to think of a topic, something to talk about.

“You hungry?” Eren suddenly asked, surprising the older man from his thoughts.

“Hm?” Levi replied, altogether failing to answer the question.

“There’s a pub not too far from my apartment that has some awesome food and I did say I’d buy you dinner.”

“All right,” Levi agreed, hopefully keeping the desperate enthusiasm at spending more time together out of his voice. He followed Eren’s directions until they were easing into a parking lot that looked like it might have witnessed a stabbing or two.

“Hold on a sec,” Eren said when Levi parked. Before the shorter man could react, Eren pulled the A & P work shirt over his head, leaving a thin white tank top to cover what might have been abs. It was hard to tell in the dark. Then the tank top was gone too, and those were definitely abs. Biceps moved to hastily fold up the shirts before Eren leaned forward to dig something out of the backpack at his feet.

Levi was staring, he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t see much in the poor light, but everything that he could was better than he had imagined. Eren clearly worked out. It would be weird to climb into his lap. Sexual harassment. Just keep the white-knuckled grip on the door handle.

A second later, Eren was pulling a dark, form fitting long sleeved shirt over his head and packing away the other shirts.

“Okay, let’s go,” Eren said, pushing open the door of the car.

Levi hesitated, trying to reign in the inappropriate thoughts that were trying to take over his brain. After a shallow breath he numbly climbed out his side, trying desperately to act normal and not pull the intern into his backseat. This guy was going to make him lose his mind.

Eren led them towards the door and once they were inside, Levi could see Eren had put on a navy blue shirt. The sleeves were pushed up to his elbows showcasing strong forearms, but more importantly, the fabric clung to Eren’s frame the way Levi wanted to.

It was early enough that the pub wasn’t terribly crowded and the younger man led them towards a booth in the back corner.

Levi took off his suit jacket before sitting down, folding it neatly on the seat beside him and loosened his tie a bit. Eren handed him a laminated menu stuffed in between a bottle of malt vinegar and hot sauce.

Levi eyed it distrustfully, taking it gingerly as he scanned it over.

“What’s good?”

“So far? Everything.”

A few minutes later a waitress came over.

“Can I get you boys anything?” she asked, smiling brightly. Her shirt was lower cut and her bra was obviously a quality push-up in what was probably a very effective tactic to garner more tips. The attempt was altogether lost on Levi, which placed the fate of her tip firmly in her abilities as a waitress.

“What are your specials?” Eren asked, glancing at her before eyeing the menu again.

“All the burgers are five ninety-nine, and pints of the house ale are half price.”

“I’ll have the pub burger, then,” he pointed at a line on the menu, “and a house ale.”

“And for you?” she asked, turning towards Levi.

“Fish and chips and house ale.”

“Okay, I’ll get that right in for you.”

She left towards the kitchen and Levi stood, “Where’s the bathroom?”

“To the left where we came in.”

Levi nodded, finding a small room in need of paint and better lighting, but overall appeared fairly clean. He quickly washed his hands, and checked himself out in the mirror, sweeping a few strands of hair back into place. When he was done preening, he left the room and returned to the booth.

His pint was waiting for him as he sat down. Points towards the waitress.

“This place isn’t as disgusting as it looks from the outside,” Levi remarked once he was seated.

Eren laughed, taking a sip from his glass.

“I thought you wouldn’t mind it too much.”

Levi found he really didn’t. The food, when it came, was decent and it was still early enough that it wasn’t so loud they couldn’t have a conversation.

Eren finished his second pint when he checked the time on his phone.

“We should probably call it a night. Mikasa will wonder where I am.”

Levi agreed and they waved their waitress over for the check, whom Levi had to concede was deserving of her tip. Eren reached for his wallet, when Levi grabbed the bill away from him.

“I said I’d buy,” the younger man protested.

“You don’t get your first paycheck until Saturday, right? I’ll cover this one, you can get next time.”

“That’s what you said about the coffee the other day.”

“And I fully intend to collect on both,” Levi promised, shooting a half smirk across the table.

“All right, fine. Next time.”

Levi tried not to feel too disgustingly giddy that there were pseudo-plans for a next time. He was going to get himself in so much trouble if he wasn’t careful. Then again, for all he knew, he already was in trouble.

As he pulled a few bills out of his wallet, he let his eyes fall back to Eren, who was flagging down the waitress with his hand. His gaze travelled down the lean line of his torso, taking in the defined musculature that showed through the form of his shirt.

Yeah, he was in trouble.

-

When Levi dropped Eren off at his apartment building, he had the worst urge to kiss him goodnight. He fought it by wrapping his hands around the steering wheel in a death grip.

“Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Eren said, climbing out. Levi stared hard at his ass, tearing his eyes away just before Eren turned back towards him.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” Levi said. He waited for Eren to walk through the doors of the apartment building before driving off towards his own home.

So much trouble.

-

Thursday passed in much the same way as Wednesday had. The highlight of his day was still picking up Eren to drive him home. When Friday morning finally came, Eren was back in the office for the day, having only Tuesday through Thursday shifts at A & P.

Levi was having trouble focusing on work, but only when Eren was in the immediate vicinity, however. It pissed Levi off as much as it made his insides feel all gummy and warm.

It was a revolting feeling.

He had spent a somewhat less productive morning than usual directing Eren and Annie to help Petra and Gunther with their projects, which unfortunately or not, usually put Eren within Levi’s proximity. His attention was more on the younger man’s smooth voice as he asked Gunther questions, or his lean form as he walked over to hand Petra a stack of files.

After lunch, Levi received an instant message from Jean on his computer. There wasn’t much to report after only two and a half days in the new department. That was to be expected. Eren didn’t have much yet either.

And there Eren was in his mind again, shoving thoughts of work roughly off to the side. Levi closed his eyes and took a breath. After a moment, he locked his computer, stood up from his desk and walked out of the office to where the janitor’s closet was. Pulling out the key he wasn’t supposed to have, he grabbed a few cloths and a bottle of cleanser.

The break room could likely stand a deep cleaning.

-

Erwin had been gone for the first part of the afternoon, having spent it in a meeting. When he returned to his own office, he couldn’t help but notice the way the break room floor gleamed. He pressed his lips together, wondering how involved he needed to get.

When he got to the door of his private office, he stopped and stared at the back of a dark head of hair, waiting until he was sure that the force of his gaze was felt.

“Levi, I need to speak with you for a moment.”

As the shorter man stood from his desk, Erwin noted the slight tension to his shoulders, likely lost on everyone else.

When Levi entered the office a minute later, Erwin gestured to one of the chairs on the far side of his desk.

“Have a seat.”

Once Levi took the chair, Erwin began.

“How’s the project going?”

“Kirschtein and Eren are settling in. Leonhardt is on standby until we get further along.”

Levi wasn’t sure what he said, but he got the distinct impression from the way Erwin’s brow twitched that he had just given something away.

“Everything’s going well?”

“So far.”

“The break room floor looks clean enough to eat off of.” The tone of Erwin’s voice was conversational.

It was clean enough to perform a quadruple bypass surgery on. So was the employee bathroom down the hall, but Levi wasn’t going to mention that if Erwin didn’t know about it.

“Really? The janitors must be earning their wages today.”

“You signed Mr. Jaeger up as a janitor, did you not?” It was said like it was meant to be an offhand comment, but delivered with laser precision.

Warning bells were going off in Levi’s head. He was certain this conversation wasn’t simply a project update.

“I did.” Short, crisp sentences were his best defense until he knew where Erwin was going with this.

“How is that going?”

“Ask him yourself. He’s here today.”

There was another weighted look thrown his way that Levi could easily decipher as Erwin being fully aware that Levi was deliberately being difficult.

“His assignment carries the most risk.” Erwin was zeroing in on _something_.

“I’m aware,” Levi was quickly getting irritated. There was a reason Erwin was stating things they both knew, but he wasn’t sure exactly what he was trying to actually say.

“I wouldn’t want to see him run into any problems. I’m sure you’ll keep a close eye on him.”

Levi narrowed his eyes.

If Erwin thought these cryptic chats were at all helpful, he was dead wrong. Levi didn’t know if he caught all the warnings and concerns that Erwin had thrown at him. This was exactly why he preferred people who were direct and said what they meant in no uncertain terms.

Erwin probably thought Levi was worried that what had happened to Levi would happen to Eren, only instead of forced employment, there would be criminal charges at the end. Well, he _was_ worried about that, so Erwin would be partly right. Sometimes he really hated it when Erwin was right.

He doubted Erwin knew that Eren was causing him more than one headache, though. Or heartache. Same difference.

“If you’re done. I have work to get back to.”

“I’m done,” Erwin said, turning towards his computer in dismissal.

-

“Hurry up Eren, I want to get going,” Mikasa said, toeing on her shoes by the door. She was anxious to get to the furniture store before meeting a friend for lunch.

“Hold on, I want to check my bank account before we go out and drain it again.” He sat on the beanbag chair as he tried to balance his computer in his lap. It was going on its fifth year of life, ran agonizingly slow, and had a penchant for crashing whenever he blinked.

“You should have gotten paid the same as me.”

“Yes, but I want to see my balance have more than two digits in front of the decimal place for once.”

“You do see that. Right before rent comes out,” she said, jingling her keys at him.

“Hold on, it’s almost loaded…” Eren watched as the page slowly filled out, then saw the line that showed his balance. He could feel his eyes widen and his mouth open slightly. Erwin did say that they would get paid more for doing this project, but he hadn’t given that much attention at the time. He could easily afford to get a couch like Mikasa wanted, even if they weren’t splitting the cost. He could get four couches, probably fill the room with couches, but it was a small room so that’d only be like five couches… six if they were arranged carefully.

“Is something wrong?” Mikasa asked. He quickly pulled himself back together.

“No, it’s… it’s just so beautiful.”

He could feel the vibrations in the air from how hard she rolled her eyes at him. He tried to log off, but it froze, so he held the power button down until it shut off, imagining it was the equivalent of strangling his computer into unconsciousness.

“All right, I’m ready... mostly,” he said, pushing himself out of the beanbag chair to walk over and pull his shoes on as he awkwardly fumbled to grab his jacket from the hook by the door. Why do things one at a time when you can do everything at once? Sort of. His jacket fell on the floor.  

Mikasa was already halfway down the hall by the time he had made it out the door and locked it behind him.

Forty-five minutes later Eren found himself in love.

“Mikasa, this is the one,” he said, staring up at the ceiling high above him. Oh, the naps he could have on this steel gray beauty.

“Eren, the price tag says otherwise.”

“What? How much?”

“Four hundred more than the one I was looking at.”

He sat up, frowning at her.

“That’s only an extra two hundred each.” He tried not to wince as he said it. He had tried a number of the other sofas and sectionals in the store, but most of them weren’t as comfortable as they tried to make themselves look. If he was going to spend money on furniture, it had better be well worth it.

“We need to buy groceries this month,” she reminded.

“We get paid a second time this month. Also, you’re forgetting the cupboard full of ramen.” A solid argument.

“ _Eren_.”

“ _Mikasa_. For real, though. Sit on this couch,” he encouraged, scooting over to make room for her.

“Fine.”

He watched her face intently as she sat down, saw her annoyance disappear as she realized how it seemed to form to her body, cradling it like a newborn.

“It _is_ comfortable…”

He saw his opening.

“We get the nice couch, you forget about those end tables and coffee table you were eyeing up because we’re going to a thrift store for those and maybe a couple of lamps.” The lamps were pushing it. Even at second hand stores they weren’t very cheap. They had a perfectly usable overhead lights in all the rooms. He could probably talk Mikasa out of lamps.

She bit her bottom lip and Eren knew he just about had her on board. He stood up and waved over an employee before she could reason her way out of it.

“Can I help you two today?” the man asked as he walked up.

“Yes, we were looking at this couch, here.”

“It’s a nice one, isn’t it? This is one of our better brands and this one I believe…” he reached over to check the tag, “comes with the chair, here, too.”

Eren spun around to face Mikasa excitedly, wordlessly mouthing, _‘It comes with the chair!”_

“It’s still more than I wanted to spend,” Mikasa maintained, being stubborn.

He eyed her like he could laser her brain with his stare.

“We have payment plans. Usually it’s twenty-five percent down and then a monthly payment for twelve months.”

He couldn’t stop the smile as he watched her give in.

As they walked up to the counter, Mikasa elbowed him.

“So which one of us is putting their name on the payment plan?”

“I will. I wanted the couch. Listen, I’ll cover the down payment if you take care of groceries this month,” he offered as they reached the counter.

“Deal.”

“Okay. I’ll go take care of the paper work and I guess you can go look at those tables and see if we can’t work them into our budget for next month.”

Once Mikasa had wandered away out of earshot, Eren turned to the salesclerk.

“I don’t want to do the payment plan. I’ll just pay in full.”

-

Levi tapped his fingers on the steering wheel while he waited for Eren to show up. It was quickly becoming routine, extending his work day until it was time to pick up the sort-of-intern under his care. His days were spent poring over company records with Leonhardt and Petra, occasional messages from Kirschtein updating him on how the young man was integrating himself into the Logistics department. So far, nothing much had happened.

Which, in a way, made everything worse, because he knew this was just the calm before the storm.

It was a waiting game right now, and while Levi could be incredibly patient, it didn’t mean he enjoyed it.

The one who was worrying him was Eren. Kirschtein and Leonhardt weren’t really in any danger, at least not at this point.

Eren was though. They were skating the edge of legality just by having Eren work at A&P as a janitor, and just managing to avoid it by having him not technically be an employee of Klorva. A good lawyer would still find a way to prosecute and A&P had very good lawyers.

Frankly, he didn’t think Eren had the skills to talk himself out of the situation if he got caught. Farlan did, and had kept him, Levi, and Isabel from a prison cell more than a couple times. Farlan had been smart enough to know it was time to disappear when cops started sniffing around.

Eren wasn’t Farlan. Eren was driven by something other than greed and anger towards those who had more like Levi and his friends had been. Eren would go down with a sinking ship. There was something monstrous lurking in the depths that all three of the interns had, he had seen it surface briefly that day in the boardroom when Erwin had told them his plan.

It set an itch under Levi’s skin.

Levi needlessly adjusted the rearview mirror.

Why did he have the feeling that things were going to turn out badly?

The sound of his car door opening startled him out of his thoughts. Eren climbed in, flashing a smile bright enough to make Levi want to choke.

“Evening,” Eren said, the slightest breathlessness in his voice from the walk over.

Levi’s heart instantly tripped over itself in response.

 _That_ was the other problem. The big problem that he had been wrestling with since probably the moment he had first seen Eren’s picture in that file Erwin had given him.

“Hn,” Levi replied, if it could be called a reply.

These car rides were torture…

…and he was a masochist.

He couldn’t deny that he _really_ liked Eren. He didn’t know what to do about it, though. He definitely felt like there was a Jekyll and Hyde aura about the younger man, one made his heart do somersaults, and the other… on the few occasions he had seen it, turned him on.

“I think I’ll have a chance to get down to their technology department tomorrow. They’re scheduled to be cleaned on Thursdays so I should be able to get a look around.”

“Good,” Levi said, even as his chest clenched with anxiety. He had to remind himself that he tried to take as much risk out of the situation as possible for Eren. Just shove a flash drive in a computer, don’t get caught.

Simple.

Afterwards, when everything was over, ask Eren out.

Or just continue to take him out on dates that only Levi knew were dates until Eren realized they were in a relationship and decided it was too much of a hassle to break it off.

Levi cringed internally at the thought.

There was a reason he left planning to people like Farlan and Erwin.

As he drove, he glanced over towards Eren who was staring out the window at the streaks of the city lights. His profile was intermittently lit in a soft glow from the street lights. The younger man was incredibly attractive, and Levi had always had a thing for green eyes and dark hair.

Focusing back on the road, he tried to ignore the gnawing in his chest. It was a gross mixture of want and concern. He just had to keep it together until they could finish Erwin’s stupid scheme. Just avoid being a creepy lovesick weirdo until then.

“I still owe you coffee and dinner, don’t I?” Eren said, turning away from the window and towards Levi.

“Are you inviting me out?” He was very careful not to use the word ‘asking’.

“Well, it’s either that or I cook for you, but that can be hit or miss.”

Levi’s mouth quirked at the edges, a little tension easing out. He slowed the car as they came up to a red light.

“I’ve never heard anyone describe their cooking skills quite like that,” he said, amusement in his voice as he cast a sidelong glance at Eren, who shrugged.

“It’s an accurate assessment.”

“Now I’m curious. Usually people are either good cooks or they aren’t.”

“My cooking education consists entirely of trial and error,” Eren explained.

Levi let out a soft chuckle.

“There are these things called recipes. You might have heard of them.”

“I always tell myself I’m going to follow them, and then somehow I don’t,” he said, scratching behind his ear. Levi wasn’t sure if it was a self-conscious gesture or something he did when he was thinking. Or maybe the back of his ear just itched. Whichever it was, it was cute. Levi wanted to puke.

“Somehow?” he asked, instead of vomiting.

“I get lost in the heat of the moment.”

“What?” What did that even mean? “That doesn’t make me less curious.” Honestly, Levi thought Eren might be joking with him.

“If you really want, I’ll cook for you, but no promises on the quality.”

“I get the impression this is either dinner or a show. Not both.” He had the sudden image of Eren in his kitchen, moving around, busy chopping this and browning that. Levi would lean against the counter, watching. Conversation would either be easy or Eren would be too focused on the task and Levi would be captivated. It was a sickeningly domestic image and Levi couldn’t help but take a small amount of pleasure in it.

“Well if you really need entertainment, I’ll give you a show.”

Levi felt his mouth go dry. He knew Eren hadn’t meant that in any way other than a kind-of-sort-of-innocent joke, but the previous image in Levi’s head was replaced by Eren in nothing but an apron and a wicked smile, holding a spatula like he was going to use it for discipline instead of cooking.

Levi needed to say something, quick, before the younger man read into his own words. Before it got awkward, because Levi was making it awkward by not responding immediately. Think… speak words… shit, he was thinking about the Pythagorean theorem… not math, _words_!

“Fine. Come over and cook for me instead of buying me dinner.”

It never ceased to amaze Levi when he managed to construct intelligible sentences in these situations. This was a pat-on-the-back situation.

“Serious?” Eren asked, a corner of his mouth quirking, “Okay, how about on Saturday? At five-ish?”

“Saturday’s fine. I’ll text you my address.”

When he dropped Eren off at his apartment, Levi took a moment to let out a shaky breath before leaving the parking lot.

What the hell did he just do?

There was no way he could act normal with Eren at his place.

Shit.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I was writing this, I realized that I nearly always write Levi's POV, but I personally identify more with Eren. I have no idea why I do that. Maybe because Levi's side is the one I'm trying to figure out?
> 
> I meant to have this out like a week ago, but I was having trouble ending it, getting pulled into two other stories I'm working on and haven't even posted, and I was celebrating my birthday last week, so honestly, I was drinking instead of writing. Because that's how you deal with age.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, what's this? Plot, plot, and still no porn? Seriously, though. There's a bunch of plot in this chapter.

“Eren, I want you tagging along with me when I go to Tech, today,” Thomas said, walking past Eren who was reviewing the checklist.

His eyes widened fractionally as he looked at the other janitor, surprised.  He hadn’t even had a chance to casually volunteer for that task.

“Sure, but why?”

“Well, it’s a high security area so we need to get a security escort and I don’t think anyone’s shown you how to do that yet, have they?”

“Uh, no.” He tried to keep the frown off his face.  He had wondered how tight security measures would be.

“There’s also a few other things that are different from the other departments, mostly because of the labs.  Some of the waste requires special handling procedures, which is why you had to watch all those safety videos as part of your orientation.”

“Ah, sounds… gross.”

Thomas laughed, “It’s not so bad.  It’s mostly chemical disposal.  I filled in at the medical lab they have downtown once for a few weeks, now that was gross.”

“I’ll bet,” he said, making a face.  “I’m going to go clean the lobby bathrooms, radio me when you want to go hit up Tech.”

“Won’t be for a few hours.  That department is one you definitely want to do after everyone’s gone home for the day.”

That was true for most of the departments, with the exceptions of marketing and the test kitchens.  There were usually left over snack trays and donuts during the regular work hours and the employees were happy to pawn them off on the janitors rather than see them get thrown out.

The lobby bathrooms were high traffic areas, so were usually cleaned twice and day and often there was a radio call or two to have them restocked with toilet paper of have the trash taken out.  Or on less savory calls, a request for a plunger.

Eren felt the small grin spread on his face as he grabbed a cleaning cart and headed towards the service elevator.  The day was already going smoother than he thought.

He had just finished the bathrooms when he got a call on the radio.

“1 to 3.”

1 was the call sign for work control, the office that took work orders for the entire building complex and assigned the requests to the appropriate crew.  2 was maintenance, and 3 was janitorial. 

“This is 3, go ahead,” Eren spoke into his radio.

“There’s a carpet spill on floor 9, finance.”

“Copy that.”

The spill turned out to be a broken pot of coffee and three accountants standing around looking highly concerned, like they were trying to determine the best way to perform a complicated surgery.  It was almost comical the relief on their faces when they saw Eren.  He politely shooed them away to start picking up the shards of glass and bagging them.  Then he soaked up as much of the liquid as he could with paper towels.  Finally, he pulled out his phone and texted Levi, his secret weapon.

_How do you clean coffee out of carpet?_

The reply was surprisingly quick.

**_Flush with water.  Mix 2 C warm water with ¼ C lemon juice or vinegar.  Add 1 Tbsp dish detergent.  Apply with sponge in circular motion.  Rinse.  Pat with towel._ **

It was like he had programmed his autocorrect with cleaning tips.   

Eren looked over and saw he had vinegar on his cart, there was dish soap in the test kitchens, and sponges in the janitor’s room.  He parked the cart over the stain and left to gather his supplies.  Fifteen minutes later he was surprised at how well Levi’s solution worked.

“You’re pretty good at that,” a woman commented as she peered over the side of her cubicle, and joked, “How much to get you to come clean my house?”

“Depends on whether or not you offer a pension.”

“You’d probably have to settle for dinner.”

“Then it depends on how good of a cook you are,” Eren said with a smirk, packing up his supplies on the cart and wheeling it away.

It wasn’t until later that Eren realized she had been trying to flirt with him, when he relayed the story to Thomas… who had to tell him.

- 

The logistics department had a relatively small office area, but it had a set of large bay windows at one end that overlooked the shipping docks.  A thick metal door to the side of the windows opened to a metal staircase leading down to the dock area.  Even with the heavy insulation in the walls to muffle the sounds of the forklifts depositing palletized goods onto semis for warehouse transport, a soft steady beeping of equipment could be heard as they reversed.  It was a near constant noise that continued around the clock.

Occasionally flatbed trailers would back into one of the docks and a large piece of industrial equipment would be carefully loaded on followed by more on subsequent trailers to be assembled on site, too big to be transported as a whole piece. 

The department employees were either strictly assigned to the loading area, fulfilled a more administrative role in the office above, or some combination of the two.

Jean found himself in the purely administrative section since all the breaches had occurred in the office area itself.

He was reviewing shipping routes when Hitch threw her elbows atop the low wall of his cubicle.  He had met her on his first day in the department and while he may not have a good impression of her work ethic, she was a treasure trove of gossip.  For her part, she seemed to make friends with anyone who enjoyed other people’s dirt as much as her.

“Ready for a break?” she asked, shaking a pack of cigarettes at him.

He had quickly learned that smokers had the most information, grouped together at the back of the building in their small pavilion.  Jean had recognized it as an opportunity to get to know office workers on a more personal level and get caught up on rumors.  He could place his ear anywhere in the company for a few minutes, depending on who all was out there.

The only problem was that Jean hadn’t been a smoker when he started in the department the week prior. 

“Yeah, just let me log out quick.”

He had watched his dad smoke for years so he could fake it well enough, just suck the smoke into his mouth and hold it for a few moments before breathing it out his nose.  Then brush his teeth really well at the end of the work day and shower once he got to his apartment to clean off the smell.  He was also doing laundry more regularly after catching whiffs of stale smoke every time he walked past his hamper.

He followed Hitch outside to the pavilion, lit up and waited for her to start talking.

“So,” she began after putting her lighter back in her pocket, “you know who Hannah is?  Desk in the back corner by the copier?”

Jean tilted his head, an image of a freckled redhead flashing into his mind.

“Yeah, what about her?”

He watched as her eyes sparkled.  Hitch loved to talk, and in Jean, she had found someone who was always willing to listen.

“Well, we had a meeting last week and she skipped out on it.  You know why?” The grin on her face was devious.

“Why?”

“Because she’s sneaking off to rendezvous with someone in Finance on… the… clock.” 

“Really?” Jean asked, not actually caring if someone was sleeping around, but wondering if the affair was actually a cover for something else.  They still weren’t sure how information from research and development was getting out of its department and why it seemed to be leaving the company through Logistics. 

Should he be looking into personal connections between R&D personnel and Logistics personnel?  Was there anyone that frequently traveled between the two offices? 

“Really,” Hitch confirmed.

Jean let his thoughts swirl around, compiling a mental list of people who frequently darted in and out of the office during the day.

“What about that freckled girl who sits by the window?  She’s always disappearing.”

“Well, I don’t know if this is true, but the rumor is…” Hitch began and Jean leaned in towards her conspiratorial whisper.

He had barely been in the department and was already a paranoid gossiping smoker. 

This wasn’t how he envisioned himself at this age.

-

Eren diligently trailed behind Thomas as they went to the security office.  He observed silently as Thomas informed the guard behind the desk that they were going to clean the Tech department.  The guard wrote something down on a clipboard, reached for a set of keys and walked out from behind the desk to apparently escort them.

The ride down in the elevator was short, Thomas chatting lightly with the guard.

Eren tried his best not to fidget with impatience.

When the elevator doors opened, a long tiled hallway stretched to the left and right.  The wall across from him had three dimensional letters affixed to the wall informing him he was at the Technological Resources Development Department.  An empty reception desk sat across from a line of chairs to his left. 

Thomas and the guard walked past the reception desk to the door beyond, Eren pushing his janitor’s cart behind them.  The guard unlocked the door and they went through. 

Much of it looked like any other office Eren had seen, cubicles and desks laid out in orderly rows, a break area, copiers and recycling bins, nothing special until his eyes landed on the doors on the far wall.

Those were key card access.  With security cameras trained on them.

One even had a hand print scanner next to it.

“For the most part it’s like any other office,” Thomas said, “Empty garbage and recycling, vacuum, mop, all that.  The labs we have to be careful with.  Depending on what they’re doing, we don’t always clean every one.  If we start with the labs, Boris can go back to his desk as soon as we’re done and then we can do the rest of the office and lock up behind us.”

“Sounds good,” Eren replied.

They worked the labs together.  Most of them were fairly large rooms, but required surprisingly little cleaning.  There were trashes to empty and recycling bins containing a large number of empty energy drink cans. 

The labs themselves were full of equipment.  There were machines designed for stress testing of materials, ovens, lasers, mechanical sieves...  Eren could recognize the function of most, having spent a large amount of time in the different research labs while at his university.  He let himself take in each room, trying to narrow down by the equipment present what the focus of the research for each lab must be.

Hange’s work was in energy production for commercial use.  He was on the lookout for the electronics lab. 

It was the third one they entered, immediately recognizable by the coils of wires, meters, and oscilloscopes.  Eren scanned the room quickly, taking in the work stations stacked with equipment and tools, the two laptops he could see, and a handful of projects hastily put away for the day.

Mindful of Boris’s disinterested gaze from the door, Eren started checking the wastebaskets in the room, emptying them into the larger garbage bag attached to their cart.  Thomas was already pushing a broom across the floor, so Eren grabbed a rag and a spray bottle and started to wipe down the counters. 

He quickly ran his cloth on the counter, between equipment, occasionally picking up pliers and wire snips to clean below them and then setting them down again.  Then he came across the flash drive sitting next to one of the laptops.  It was a plain black capped rectangle with the brand name stenciled in white and the gigabytes it could hold stamped near the end.    

Eren carefully noted it as he scrubbed the counter around the laptops, seeing a couple of other thumb drives, an idea filtering through his brain.  He was anxious suddenly to talk to Levi and get his blessing. 

He finished with the countertops and walked back towards their cart, putting the rag down and picking up the mop.  He swabbed the floor while Thomas marked off boxes on their checklist.

They quickly finished up the rest of the labs and then focused on the office itself as Boris left to go back to the security office.

Eren would have considered attempting to put Levi’s code in one of the many computers that surrounded him if it weren’t for the fact that Thomas decided to vacuum next to him and carry on a conversation while he emptied trash bins.  Or the fact that the security cameras were itching at the back of his neck.

-

Levi turned his head to watch Eren climb in the passenger’s seat, a wide devilish smile on the younger man’s face that made Levi’s heart leap up into his throat to try to cut off his air supply.

“Do you mind if we make a side trip?”

“Where to?”

“Somewhere that sells electronics.”

Levi hummed an agreement while he tried to determine the closest one that would be open at this time.  It wasn’t until they were standing in front of a display of flash drives that Levi actually voiced his question.

“What are we doing here?”

“I saw some thumb drives today while I was in their electronics lab,” Eren said, reaching out and sliding a packaged flash drive off the rack in front of him, “and a few looked exactly like this.”  He held up the item for Levi to see.

Levi raised a brow for Eren to continue.

“I was thinking you could put your code on this and I’ll leave it in their lab next time I have the opportunity.”  Levi wondered if Eren realized the way he had ducked his head to look at Levi through his lashes when his gaze was that intense wasn’t even remotely pleading.  Probably not.  Seductive, maybe.  Or rather, seductive, very.

“You want them to do the work of installing it themselves,” Levi smirked, ignoring the way his skin was prickling, “Aren’t you lazy?”

“The word you meant was clever, aren’t I clever” Eren said, tapping him lightly on the bicep with the package and his gaze thankfully relaxing so Levi could catch his breath.

“I think I meant what I said.”

“I figured I could build up a mock spreadsheet that looks like trial data and put in on here so that when they plug it in, they won’t wonder why there’s a blank flash drive lying around.  They’ll just see what looks like some experimental results, decide it’s not the flash drive they want, and won’t think twice about it.  Maybe disguise your code to look like metadata from an experiment or something.”

Fine.  Clever.

“Also, I wanted to pick up some Bluetooth headphones and one of those smart watches,” Eren said, turning his face away from Levi to look around the store.

“What for?” Levi asked, admiring the sight of Eren’s neck curving down to his shoulder.

“So I can call you and read off employee names.  I’d rather not have a hand-written list of personnel on me, just in case.  There’s a security guard and cameras when we go down there, so writing stuff down at every cubicle might seem odd.” 

Eren started to walk towards another aisle, so Levi fell into step with him.

“You don’t think calling me up and rattling them off is suspicious?”

“Not if it looks like I’m pulling up a playlist and singing along to music.”

They passed the ends of a few aisles before Eren turned down one, stopping in front of a display of wireless headphones.  He hummed to himself as he grabbed a pair with a built-in microphone and then they were headed over to a counter towards the back of the store where locked counters held a selection of wearable tech.

“I can put this all on that credit card Erwin gave me, right?”

“Yeah, just fill out an itemized report for payment.”

“Awesome,” Eren said before he asked the girl working the counter to show him the most expensive model.

-

Friday morning found Levi writing a program to flag e-mails with key words relating to Hange’s research.  The end game being that he wouldn’t have to personally scour through the thousands that were sent out daily from the company. 

“Will it scan attachments, too?” Eren asked from over his shoulder, entirely too close to his ear.  Levi nearly jumped, having been so absorbed in his program that he hadn’t noticed Eren come up behind him.

“We’ll see after my test run,” he replied, trying to repress the shiver that wanted to slither down his spine at the puff of breath on his neck.  There was absolutely no reason for Eren to be so close.

Levi had to ignore the part of him that wanted to grab Eren by the tie and yank him closer.  Fortunately, Petra’s glance over at them at the sound of their voices helped to keep Levi focused on what he was doing.

“I owe you a coffee if you want a break,” Eren offered, gently tugging the back of Levi’s chair.  Levi answered by saving his work and logging off.

It was a fairly quiet trip down to the coffee shop minus Eren’s humming along with the elevator music.  They ordered and retreated to a corner in the back where Levi sipped on a tea blend while Eren swirled his coffee absently before resting his steady gaze on Levi.

“Where’d you learn to write code?” Eren asked, mind apparently on Levi’s latest project he had been working on.

“My uncle was a programmer. He would come over to help out every once in a while and bring his work with.  He taught me some, the rest I learned through internet forums.”

“Ah, that might explain it.  Your style isn’t quite like what we learned in school.  I saw you prefer using PHP script.”

It was a popular script useful for opening and reading files, for modifying databases.  Handy for someone trying to gather a large amount of information.

“A throwback to my days as a lawless youth,” Levi snorted into his tea, “That and command line scripting.”

“So how does one become a lawless youth?” Eren asked with a slight smirk as he leaned forward across the table.  There was a hint of _something_ in his voice that Levi couldn’t quite decipher, but he didn’t think it was a _bad_ something.  In fact, he was hoping it was a very _good_ something.

“Be a fourteen-year-old whose mom spends most her time sleeping off chemo.  You have to have entirely too much free time to get into trouble,” Levi said flippantly, the years since having eased the helpless anger he felt back then.

Eren gave him a look that was wholly understanding and Levi had to wonder just what the intern had gone through himself.

“Then you meet a kid who also doesn’t have a great home life and show him a worm you coded.  It goes from there.”

“Farlan,” Eren guessed.

“His parents were going through a divorce.”

“So it was just you and Farlan?”

“There was Isabel, too,” Levi said, thoughts drifting back in time to the girl they had found sulking in the school computer lab after a round of bullying from upperclassmen.  She had been too forceful for her own good from the day he had met her.

“What happened to her?”

“She ended up on the wrong side of the law,” Levi said and left it at that.  Eren seemed to interpret that as a closed subject and took a sip of his coffee before changing topics.

“So I was wondering if you have any food allergies I should worry about for tomorrow?”

Suddenly Levi’s heart was thudding at the reminder and he found himself slowly spinning his cup around on the table.

“No.”

“Anything you don’t like?”

“Food that tastes like shit.”

Eren’s burst of laughter was more than a little heart-warming.  His eyes sparkled and Levi was certain it wasn’t a trick of the light.

“I already said there were no guarantees on that.”

“So what were you planning, then?” Levi asked, leaning back in his chair, curious.

“Planning?” Eren echoed, as if he had never heard the word before.

“What, were you just going to show up and wing it?” Levi could hear the incredulity in his own voice.  Generally, when people cooked for someone else for the first time, they brought out their best dish in an effort to impress.

“Kind of, yeah,” Eren admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.  He didn’t seem to think there was anything odd about that. 

Levi had the absurd urge to laugh.  Instead, he made a mental note to dig out all of his fliers for restaurants that delivered to his house.

“It’ll be fun,” Eren insisted.  Levi felt the unintentional brush of Eren’s leg against his under the table as the younger man shifted to lean back.  His shin burned at the ghost of touch.

If fun and torture were synonymous as they increasingly seemed to be when he was with Eren, then yes, it would be fun.

-

Levi spent the rest of the day determinedly focused on finishing his program.  He had transferred his code onto the flash drive for Eren when they got back from coffee.  The small stick had been carefully placed in Eren’s hand without making skin-to-skin contact.  Levi was already having a hard time looking at him and he didn’t want to have awkward blushing on top of it.

The small opening up he had done about his past had brought his emotions closer to the surface.  _All_ his emotions, he had noted with irritation when his gaze lingered on Eren’s form.

Work today, however, was a sufficient enough distraction that he didn’t need to venture over to the janitor’s closet.  The morning bled into the afternoon, which passed quickly enough as he stared at his computer screen. 

Occasionally, he’d find his eyes had strayed over to where Eren was sharing a desk with Leonhardt, poring over documents trying to figure out if there was a pattern to the mole’s activities.  He’d watch as the young man would chat with her quietly, coaxing the smallest of smiles out of her every once in a while.  He would think how Eren seemed to have a way with quiet, standoffish people.  Then Levi would notice he was staring and snap his attention back to his computer.

Petra may have caught him once or twice, giving him the tiniest of smirks that immediately caused her to lose favor with him.

At the end of the day, Levi had tried to pack his shoulder bag up for the weekend three times with the wrong files before he realized how muddled his head was now that he didn’t have his program to distract him. 

His mind kept circling around the dinner date that wasn’t a date, even if everything about it sounded like one.  Eren had his head in a twist and it was causing him to consider the unthinkable.

Hesitantly, he turned towards the back of the office.  There was a part of him that was very against what he was going to do, but there was another part that had gone insane and was egging him on.

With a steadying breath, Levi made his way to the desk of Zoe Hange.

“I need some advice that I’m not going to follow.  Drinks on me.”

She paused in typing up her report and turned to him, an eyebrow raised in question.  Levi typically didn’t come to her for much of anything.  She was usually the one that twisted his arm to go out and socialize.  He must have something big on his mind.

“About what?”

“Eren Jaeger.”  He could see her analytical mind at work as her eyebrows pinched together, running over scraps of information. 

Not Kirschtein or Leonhardt. 

Jaeger. 

The intern that didn’t seem bothered by Levi’s rough exterior.  The intern that had a habit of wandering over to Levi’s desk and chatting.  The one Levi stayed late in the office for to give a ride home to.  The one in the riskiest position.  

For a brief moment she seemed even more confused, both brows raising slowly before realization hit and a grin spread evilly across her face. 

The intern that was stupidly attractive that Levi always seemed to be looking at.

“If I had known you had a thing for him, I wouldn’t have actually teased you about it, you know.”

“Shut up.  We’re not talking about this until I get a drink.”

Forty-five minutes later, they were seated at a small table with a pitcher between them.

“So,” Hange grinned, “Tell me about our dear Mr. Jaeger.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I finished this like a week ago. I like to let something sit for a day and not think about it so when I go back to edit it, I feel like I catch more, only I never had time to go edit. I'll be disappearing at the end of the week for a short trip where I won't have internet and I figured I'd better hurry up and get this out. 
> 
> Also, for the record, I know absolutely nothing about programming or writing code. Any information in here pertaining to that was googled.
> 
> Next chapter, though, dinner at Levi's.


	9. Chapter 9

_Forty-five minutes later, they were seated at a small table with a pitcher between them._

_“So,” Hange grinned, “Tell me about our dear Mr. Jaeger.”_

Levi slowly spun the glass in his hands around as he considered how to put into words what it was he wanted to ask. 

“He’s cooking dinner for me tomorrow.”

Not a question.  At all. 

He supposed it was at least a place to start.  It was better than staring into his drink all night while Hange side-eyed him.  Although she would probably manage to pry the problem out of him her own way.  He glanced up over at the steady brown eyes that were currently lazering his skull with their intense stare.

“His place or yours?”

Levi blinked.  “Mine… does it matter?”  Did it?

“So you invited him?”

“Sort of.  He owed me dinner-”

“How did he _‘owe you dinner’_ exactly?”

Levi paused, lifting his glass to take a drink while he tried to keep up with her rapid fire pace.  This police-style interrogation wasn’t exactly what he had been anticipating.  Not that one should bother to try predicting the outcome to any interaction with Hange.  He certainly always found himself surprised.

“I bought him dinner after one of his shifts at A&P.”

“Just a casual bite to eat between co-workers?” she asked, the slightest tic pulling up at the corner of her mouth. 

Something must have shown on his face when her expression grew to a full grin.

“Maybe for him,” Levi admitted.

“Maybe not for you?”

He didn’t bother to answer, seeking the safety of another sip of beer.

“Oh, _Levi_.  _Oh_ Levi!” She thumped the table with her hand, a strange, worrying shudder passing through her shoulders as some creepy giddiness took her over.  “Does he know?” she asked, tone lowered to a conspiratorial volume as she leaned in.

“I don’t think so?”

Her fingers tapped excitedly across the tabletop before one hand grabbed her glass and she took a healthy draught.

“Let me see if I got this.  You have been struck by Cupid’s arrow and are now hopelessly smitten with a gorgeous young man who knows not of your affections.  Efforts to woo him with dinner and coffees- don’t think I haven’t seen you two come into the office after breaks together, _and now I know why_ -wooing efforts have resulted in inconclusive results.  Now you’re luring him, don’t interrupt-” she said when he opened his mouth to protest, “now you’re luring him into your lair in an attempt to seduce him into your love chambers.”

Levi made a face as she finished her assessment and took a deep drink. 

“Why did that end with me sounding like some sort of villain?”

“Because Eren is the naïve young virgin in this scenario,” Hange responded with patience at his inability to grasp the obvious.

“I doubt very much that he’s a virgin.”

“Me too.  You don’t look that good and not have someone trick you into bed.”

He decided to ignore that last bit.  He didn’t think Eren was someone who could be tricked like that.  Once the young man knew where things were headed, he’d probably either be fully on board or he’d shut it down immediately.  Levi highly suspected that most of what Hange said was part of some weird social experiment designed to garner reactions.  Like something an extra-terrestrial zoologist would do if they were studying human behavior. 

“I think he flirts with me.”

“You’re not sure?”

No.  Levi really wasn’t.  If Eren was flirting, he was doing it just lightly enough that it could easily be considered friendliness, or it could be as if he were testing the waters.  Or maybe Eren just had smaller boundaries when it came to personal space and he was a tactile individual.

“Not really.”

“Hmm…” Hange pressed her lips together and leaned back thoughtfully.  Levi finished his glass and poured another from the pitcher while he waited.  He would be taking a cab home; he could already tell.

“Out of curiosity, does Erwin know you’ve got the hots for one of his little pawns?”

“No.  That’s one of the problems, though, isn’t it?  Eren’s a pawn in this whole mess.”  Their situation was more than inconvenient.  It was high stakes and they really didn’t need the distraction.

“Honey, we’re all pawns in Erwin’s messes,” Hange said, sardonically.  Levi supposed that was true enough.  It was quiet for a moment as Hange finished her own beer and refilled it.  When her eyes landed on Levi next she looked unusually serious.

“Well, you’ll probably have to just ask him.”  Which is what Levi already knew, but he had really been hoping there was a way around that.  Something where he could just know if Eren was interested without any risk.

“I don’t like that answer.”

He blinked, surprised that had come out of his mouth and looked down at his glass.  Half empty.  He hadn’t even noticed.  He was going through it at an alarming pace too, but he didn’t foresee himself slowing down.

Hange laughed, something mirthful and tender sweeping into her eyes.

“Tough luck.”

Levi sighed and finished his glass for the second time.  It would be easy to ask if he were drunk.  Stuff just sort of spilled out of his mouth when he drank, apparently.  His thoughts swirled around the viability of him being trashed for dinner when Eren showed up as he poured himself another glassful. 

He could imagine Eren’s reaction to him fumbling to open the door at his knock.  Drunkenly dropping ingredients on the floor as he handed them over to the younger man.  Throwing up as dinner was served and then passing out on his plate.  He wasn’t sure why he was _that_ drunk in this scenario, other than it might be what was required in order to force the words out of his mouth.

_Do you like me?_

It shouldn’t be this hard.

_Like as in like-like?_

The main trick would be to not sound like a fourteen-year-old girl. 

“I have this suspicion that I am going to fail,” Levi finally responded.

“I find this hilarious, just so you know.  I’ve seen you stand up to all sorts of scary men and women on the board of directors, but then this twenty-something intern waltzes in and you’re telling me you can’t string a tiny sentence together?”

“Even Superman is weak against a rock,” Levi replied, taking another swallow of beer.

“Not just any rock.  Kryptonite.  Although, I suppose Eren is your Kryptonite.”

They were each on their fourth beers when Levi finally got around to asking Hange her opinion on what really mattered.  It was the real reason he had asked her out and it was less to determine whether or not Eren might have an interest in him.  Regardless of how their relationship appeared, and at times felt, Levi trusted Hange’s honest evaluations of a situation.

“You think I should go for it?”  Levi ultimately wanted to know what he should do about this.  It was more than ascertaining interest, it was making the decision on whether or not to pursue.

“Absolutely I think you should go for it.  Fuck Erwin.”  Her way of saying to forget about Erwin’s plans and prioritize what he himself wanted.

Levi blinked, a slight smile on his face as he peered down into his glass.

“What about your tech?”

“Levi, if I was good enough to steal from once, I’ll be good enough to steal from again,” she slurred, but the look in her eyes told him she meant it, drunk or sober.

“Fuck Erwin,” he smiled.

-

It was still technically morning when Levi drug himself out of bed.  He had an awful taste in his mouth and his stomach felt like it was going to protest anything he tried to put in it.  His head pounded, but not too bad, considering.

As far as hangovers went, he had worse. 

He stumbled into the bathroom to relieve himself, which is what had woken him in the first place.  He remembered switching to water towards the end of the night, which is likely why he was even remotely mobile now.

After washing his hands, Levi grabbed his toothbrush and set to work.  Mouthwash followed.  When he was done, he still had traces of that stale drank-too-much-the-previous-night taste in his mouth and he grimaced.  Flipping open his medicine cabinet, he grabbed a bottle of pills, shook two into his hand and swallowed them carefully with a glass of water.

He then stripped down, noting with some distaste that he was still wearing his shirt from yesterday and it smelled and looked like Hange had spilled her beer on him.  He remembered it was when she had been telling a story he couldn’t exactly follow, got up without finishing it to announce she had to go to the bathroom and managed to tip her glass into his lap.

It had been mostly empty and that was the only saving grace.

Climbing into the shower, Levi twisted the hot and cold water on until he found a reasonable temperature to stand in as he leaned against the tiled wall with his eyes closed. 

It was twenty minutes later that Levi was carrying his hamper with his soiled clothes and bedsheets that smelled like beer towards his washing machine that he noticed something very wrong in his living room.

It came in the form of a snoring woman whose brown hair was splayed over an armrest.  Her glasses were perched on the edge of his coffee table.

He had a flash of memory of Hange telling him she couldn’t remember her own address and laughing hysterically about it.  She had ended up drinking more than him and at one point she was dancing by her barstool along to Ginuwine as he sang about riding ponies through the jukebox speakers.  She had tried to sing along to the entire thing despite only knowing the chorus.

He ignored the problem of her presence for the moment as he continued to the washer, stuffing the items in and measuring out the soap and softener before selecting the wash cycle and turning it on.

He had no honest hopes of Eren in his bed tonight, but just in case that sliver of a chance presented itself, he was not going to have sheets that smelled like beer and his drunken sweat.  He wouldn’t put up with that if it were just himself, either, but the knowledge that Eren would be in his home in a matter of hours had ridiculous, whimsical thoughts swimming through his brain.

“Hange,” Levi said, lifting a leg to shake her awake with his foot.

She snorted awake, ever the lady.

“Hm?  Oh Levi?  What are….” She glanced around, “is this your place?”

“No, we broke into some stranger’s house and tied them up in a closet so we could sleep off our inebriation.”

“That sounds like something I’d do,” she shrugged.

“Get up.  You stink.”

He wasn’t actually close enough to smell if she did or not, but regardless, he was planning on spraying the couch down with a fabric freshener.

“You got some water?”

He sighed and left to get her a glass, hearing her stumble to her feet behind him.  When he returned with a full glass and a bottle of aspirin, she was refolding the blanket he had apparently grabbed for her the previous night.

“If you want to use the bathroom, it’s the first door on the left down the hallway.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled, setting the folded blanket down and reaching for the water.  He left for the kitchen and despite what his stomach thought it wanted, he was going to put something in it.

He was in the middle of frying up an omelet when the musical sounds of retching reached his ears.

He hoped with every fiber of his being that she was in the bathroom.

-

Hange had ended up staying for what turned out to be lunch omelets.  Freshly showered and in one of Levi’s oversized t-shirts for working out and a pair of gym shorts, one could hardly tell that she had been puking her guts out for the last part of the morning.

Levi inexplicably found himself playing nursemaid to his struggling co-worker who was quickly cashing in all her friendship chips with him.

They had put on a movie to distract themselves from how awful they were feeling, although that was more on Hange’s side of things than Levi.  It was nearly three-thirty before she announced that she felt capable of riding in a vehicle without being sick.  Levi quickly called a cab and they were off to retrieve their neglected vehicles from the parking lot of the bar.

Hange parted with a soft punch to his shoulder and a “ _Go get him tiger_.”  Then she climbed into her car and drove away.

Levi checked his watch and realized he had better hurry or Eren would be arriving on the doorstep to an empty house.  He made it home with a half hour to spare and then the nerves set in.  He hadn’t noticed with Hange around all day, but now with nothing to do but stare at the clock and wait, he couldn’t help but feel anxious.  Which is why he found himself on his hands and knees on the kitchen floor with a paper towel cleaning up imaginary dirt when the doorbell rang.

He was pretty sure his heart stopped for a moment because the next beat hurt a little with how labored it felt.  He pushed himself to his feet and threw the paper towel in the garbage, smoothing down his pants and realizing that his hands were shaking.

He was beginning to regret not being drunk.  How bad could passing out on his dinner plate really be?

He walked over to the door and with a deep breath, pulled it open.  On the other side, Levi was met with a devilishly grinning Eren, holding a bag of groceries and currently running a hand through tousled hair.

Levi considered slamming the door in his face.

“Hey,” Eren breathed and it sounded entirely too intimate in the small space between them.

Levi didn’t answer, couldn’t, and instead stepped aside wordlessly, gesturing for Eren to come in as he struggled to pull oxygen back into his lungs.  All the while eyeing the young man who was dressed in fitted jeans and a casual button down shirt under a navy blazer.  Like he had dressed up a little, but didn’t want to seem like he was dressing up.

What was Levi supposed to make of _that_?

“Shoes off,” he finally managed, which was hardly welcoming or friendly, but it was hopefully better than being mute all evening.

Eren complied unoffended, toeing off each shoe in turn before sweeping his gaze across the living room visible from the entryway and absently shrugging off his blazer.  His eyes seemed to catch on something on the couch and Levi turned to see that Hange’s blanket and pillow were still sitting on one of the cushions.  Eren didn’t comment and Levi didn’t offer an explanation, instead leading the way to the kitchen.

“Through here.”

If he could manage more than two words at a time, that would be great.

Eren followed behind, setting the bag on the counter of the galley style kitchen and began another visual interrogation of his surroundings before turning to Levi.

“Nice place.”

Levi shrugged.  It was a small two bedroom, hardly anything fancy, but it was meticulously kept.

“Have any trouble finding it?”

“No, I had my phone give me directions and I saw your car in the driveway.”

“Good.”

And Levi could feel the conversation nosediving into a fiery crash as he struggled to think of anything else to say.

“So,” Eren began, one hand ruffling at the back of his head cutely as he turned to the bag he had just set on the counter, “I’m going to need a frying pan, a small saucepan, and a spatula.”

Levi could not possibly express his relief at having something to do and he opened the cupboard by the stove and pulled out the pans.

“I brought a bottle of wine, but I’ll warn you, it’s cheap as hell.”

Levi couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him.  He hardly wanted to drink again after the previous night, but he wasn’t exactly going to be repeating the quantities.

With a wry smile he crossed the kitchen to pull out two wine glasses from another cupboard.  He flicked on the stereo in the corner in the hopes that it would prevent any further awkward silences and brought the glasses to where Eren was waiting with what Levi could see was a very cheap bottle of wine.  As advertised.

“I did some prep work at home, so this should be fairly quick,” Eren said, pulling out plastic containers.

“Your sister didn’t wonder what you were up to?” Levi teased.

“She’s out with friends,” Eren explained with a muttered, “ _thankfully_ ,” tacked on at the end.

Levi wasn’t quite sure what to make of that so he didn’t comment.  Instead, he watched as Eren poured out wine into the glasses Levi had set near him.  He wordlessly accepted one when it was offered to him, leaning against the counter as Eren sorted through his ingredients, heating up the frying pan and splashing a bit of the wine in it before dumping a chopped up chicken breast in to brown.  The saucepan was filled with sliced carrots and water and set to warm over a back burner.

“So what are you making?” Levi asked curiously, leaning closer to get a look at the ingredients Eren had brought.

“You’ll see when it’s done,” Eren said with a grin, glancing up towards Levi to catch his eyes, mischief in his own.  The older man was struck, senses leaving him until Eren looked back down at the pan when the chicken began to sizzle. 

After a moment, Eren began humming along absently to the song on the stereo, and the older man couldn’t help but find the unconscious action endearing.

Levi took a swallow of his wine and remembered Hange’s words from the previous night.

_‘Well, you’ll probably have to just ask him.’_

How does one go about asking their intern if they’ve been flirting with them and that if they have been, maybe they’d like to go on an official date or at least make out in the meeting room in the office?

Levi frowned to himself, mulling it over.  Language eluded him.

“Do you have a plate I can put this on?” Eren asked, effectively breaking Levi from the turmoil of his thoughts.

“Sure,” Levi said, moving to Eren’s other side and reaching up to the cabinet above them, leaning just barely against the young man as he did so.  He handed Eren a plate and only after he resumed his post inclined against the counter did it occur to him that Eren had not moved away from the close proximity.

That was encouraging, wasn’t it?

Or maybe the young man was more focused on what he was doing to pay attention. 

Levi watched him, taking in the singular attention Eren paid to the chicken as he scooped it out, freshly browned onto the plate Levi had given him.  Somewhere along the line he had rolled up his sleeves exposing the forearms that the older man was quickly growing infatuated with.  Hopelessly so.

They were just the perfect amount of lean and muscular that set Levi on just the right kind of edge.

Eren threw chopped onion into the pan, shook a little salt in and covered it.

“So, you worried about dinner yet?” Eren asked, a hint of mirth coloring his tone as he took a sip from his own wine glass.

“Should I be?” Levi countered.  Maybe if he got Eren shit-faced drunk he could ask if Eren was interested and hopefully not have the young man remember in the morning in case it went badly.  That was always a plan.  Or maybe he should try coming up with something that didn’t have a heavy reliance on alcohol, since he doubted he had the required quantities on hand.

“Don’t know.  I’ve never cooked this before.”

Levi blinked. 

He couldn’t have stopped the slight smile from cracking across his face if he had wanted to.  “Unbelievable.”

Eren laughed easily, checking the onions, determining them to be brown enough and proceeded to add cumin and cinnamon, mixing it around quickly and then dumping in couscous, chickpeas and what appeared to be lemon zest.  The saucepan with the carrots was poured in next, water and all, followed by the chicken and a careful round of stirring of the now full frying pan.  He covered the entire thing and took it off the heat, letting it sit.

“What is it?” Levi asked again, more curiously this time.

“Something I saw online,” Eren answered.  “We have a few minutes for this to sit.”

Levi took another sip of his wine, surprised to find it was the last of the glass.  Eren had similarly finished his and moved to refill both their glasses.  It occurred to Levi suddenly that although he had been mentally preparing himself for this dinner all week, he had neglected to consider what they might do when Eren wasn’t cooking and they weren’t eating. 

Had he just assumed cook, eat, and unceremoniously shove Eren out the door?  He was probably supposed to provide some sort of entertainment, he realized belatedly.

“Want a… tour?” Levi asked, hesitantly.  It might give him a few minutes to stall to think of something. 

“Sure,” Eren answered with a smile that came too easily and showed too many teeth.

“This is the kitchen,” Levi blurted out, as if Eren hadn’t already deduced that for himself.

The younger man snorted as if Levi had made a joke.  He wasn’t about to correct that misconception.  It was far better if Eren considered him to be mildly witty than hopelessly awkward.

With another steadying sip of wine, Levi was forced to consider that maybe Eren was causing him to gain an alcohol dependence.  Rather than ruminate on that, the elder led them out of the kitchen and to the rarely used dining room. 

It held a small circular table meant for a family of four with matching chairs.  When Levi had bought it, it was more because the store hadn’t sold a ‘depressingly single bachelor’ style of dining set, which would have undoubtedly been a small metal fold-up table and uncomfortable chair with a complimentary suicide prevention pamphlet.

“Dining room,” Levi muttered, trying to turn his mind from the suddenly dark thoughts crowding it.  There was no reason for that when he had ridiculously attractive company peering around his belongings with interest.  Not that there was much to see. 

Levi led Eren to the adjoining living room, the couch still hosting the blanket and pillow neatly stacked from Hange’s stay.

“You sleep on the couch?” Eren asked with a hint of teasing.

“I had company last night.” Levi said, not willing to go into the details of that mess.  He didn’t want to explain that he got drunk with Hange so he could talk about his feelings for Eren and their nonexistent romance.  Relating _that_ story would suck the air out of the room faster than an explosion in space.

Eren arched a brow but didn’t question further, instead drifting over to the entertainment center to look at the solitary photo of Levi and an older woman.

“Is this your mother?” Eren asked softly, the barest undercurrent of reverence in his voice.  It wasn’t the first time Levi had gotten the impression that Eren had a soft spot for mothers.

“Yes,” he answered, moving over to stand by Eren as the younger man took in the features of a softly smiling Kuchel sitting at an outdoor café table, Levi seated to her right.  His uncle Kenny had taken the picture on the day that the doctor had finally given her a clean bill of health.  There was another photo of the three of them taken by their waiter on the nightstand next to his bed.

“You look like her,” Eren said, turning to him with a smile and entirely failing to notice their close proximity.

Their eyes locked.

Levi wanted desperately to kiss him.

Then Eren was moving away to evaluate his alphabetized movie collection and Levi was standing there suddenly bereft.

The rest of the tour was short, there was the spare bedroom turned workout room with free weights, a bench, and a pull-up bar.  The closet held more meticulously arranged equipment that Eren eyed with envy and Levi hadn’t even shown him the punching bag in the basement.

The bathroom was next, followed by a linen closet Levi didn’t bother to open and finally the master bedroom.

Levi noticed the way Eren hesitated ever so slightly before crossing the threshold.  Levi was grateful for having washed the sheets earlier because they filled the room with the scent of fresh linens, far more respectable than the odor of stale beer and Hange’s vomit. 

“Nice bed,” Eren said, almost awkwardly.  It was obvious he had become painfully aware that he was in the bedroom of his co-worker and trying not to show it.

Levi considered inviting Eren to try it out with him if he liked it so much, before harshly reminding himself that it would be creepy and even if Eren was interested, it might be too strong of a come on and turn the younger man off entirely.

“That’s why I bought it,” he settled for.  “One of those memory foam mattresses,” he found himself adding.

Eren’s eyes lit up as he took in the queen size bed with renewed interest.

“You look like you want to try it out,” Levi said unthinkingly.

“Kind of,” Eren admitted, not noticing the way Levi froze at his own words, “I heard those are really comfortable.”

“Knock yourself out.”  Where had this bravado come from?

Eren hesitated a moment, looking uncertain before he shook off whatever insecurities he had and flopped on top of the comforter.

Too late, Levi realized the comforter had been spared the laundry, the sheets having been the main concern.

He prayed it smelled freshly cleaned.

Eren laid there a moment, oblivious to Levi’s mounting panic over the possible aroma from his bed.

“This is fucking nice.”

It looked nice, too, Levi thought, memorizing the image of Eren laid out on his bed. 

Too soon, Eren was sitting up.  “Dinner has probably sat long enough.”  Then Eren was gone from his bed and the fantasy ended.

They made their way back to the kitchen where Eren added chopped cilantro and lemon juice before giving the pan a final stir.

Levi set the table while Eren finished up, reveling in laying down a second plate and set of silverware.  He returned to the kitchen, to pull out a hot pad for the pan.  Eren had found his cutting board and had pulled a knife from the block resting on the counter to peel and slice up an avocado, humming back in full force.

The scene was disgustingly domestic.  With a pang Levi remembered adolescent dinners alone, his mother sick from chemo in the bathroom, unable to keep down much more than vegetable broth.

He realized he was staring when Eren lifted his head to meet Levi’s gaze.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.  Just not used to having someone else in my kitchen.”

The soft smile Eren gave him had Levi’s heart dripping all over his ribcage, making a mess all over his thoracic cavity.  Gross.  This felt messy and he couldn’t imagine why he wanted it.  

For a moment his dilemma came back full force and that question was there.  He could feel it itching on the tip of his tongue, but then Eren turned back to the avocado, reaching up to grab a plate from the cupboard he had seen Levi open earlier.  He slid the slices onto the plate with the knife and set it aside before grabbing another container.

Levi stretched for their still full glasses of wine and brought them to the table, followed by Eren.

It felt like a date.

The only thing missing was candlelight.  Hell, they even had music floating out from the stereo in the kitchen.

He set their glasses down and took his seat while Eren followed suit.

Wine was very date-like.  You didn’t bring a bottle of wine to hang out with a co-worker, did you?  Eren wasn’t really acting like it was a date, though.  Levi’s thoughts ping ponged back and forth as he debated to himself.

It was quiet while they dished up their plates, Eren opening the last container to reveal fresh peas he had forgotten to cook, making Levi snort in amusement.

The first bite had Levi chewing slowly, assessing and then swallowing.

“I don’t see anything wrong with your cooking skills.”

“I was careful not to get too distracted this time,” Eren grinned, taking a sip of his wine.

“Oh is that the problem?”

“I burn things a lot,” he said with a shrug and a smile that didn’t hold a shred of embarrassment. 

The conversation fell away in favor of eating and Levi attempting surreptitious glances at his guest to try and gauge what he could possibly be thinking.  Their evening had all the elements of a date, but if anything, Eren seemed more reserved than usual. 

Maybe because they were in Levi’s territory when they were usually somewhere more neutral?  Maybe Eren had realized this was too much like a couple’s evening in too late to call it off and was drowning in awkwardness. 

_Well, you’ll probably have to just ask him._

Thanks Hange, for advice he didn’t have the guts to follow.  The last thing he wanted to do was to have the answer be in the negative and Eren too embarrassed that Levi had ever thought such a thing in the first place.  He’d quickly excuse himself and they’d struggle to work together.  If they couldn’t be effective as a team, Eren stood a much better chance of being found out and arrested.

“Something wrong?”

Levi was startled out of his brooding thoughts to look over at Eren sharply.

“Why the hell did you agree to go along with Erwin’s half-baked scheme, anyway?” Not at all the question he had wanted to ask.  How did these things even pop out of his mouth?

Eren stiffened slightly and Levi realized he had hit upon a subject very close to home for the younger man.

“That’s personal.  I’d rather not discuss it.” 

He didn’t show any of his surprise at the formality in Eren’s tone.  It was the closest to being cold to Levi that Eren had ever been.

The older man let out a quiet sigh before fixing Eren with a serious look.

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.  I don’t need to know.  Just remember that I’d rather have you fail than in the back of a police car.  As long as you don’t get caught you can always try again or decide it’s not worth it and walk away.”

Eren blinked stupidly at him for a moment, apparently taken aback by Levi’s words.  When he did regain his senses again, he ducked his head, splotches of shame staining his cheeks red.

It was by far the cutest thing Levi had seen on the intern’s face yet.  He was not going to survive this idiot.

“Sorry,” Eren mumbled before lifting his head and smiling shyly -this expression now warring for the title of cutest, “but thanks, for you know, worrying about me.”  Those green eyes had far too much warmth in them.  More than he had seen yet.

It was Levi’s turn to look embarrassed and he did his best to hide it by tilting his face down towards his plate.

“Don’t mention it.”  Really.  Don’t.  If he still had a scary, yet sexy don’t-fuck-with-me persona before tonight, it was officially dead.  The sexy part might not have ever been there, but the scary part, definitely.  Didn’t make it any less dead.

-

It was after dinner had been cleaned up with the dishwasher running and the leftovers packed away that Levi did his best to smoothly invite Eren to stay.

“Did you want to stay for a while?  It’s kind of a dick move for me to have you come over and cook for me and then kick your ass out.”

“What would we do, watch a movie or something?  Charades?  Pictionary?” Eren asked, grinning.

“How the fuck do you play Pictionary with two people?”

“Creatively?” Eren laughed and Levi’s heart clenched tightly behind his sternum.

“Never mind, I _will_ throw you out.”

“Okay, let’s watch a movie.”

A movie was something safe, something that wouldn’t be weird for two guys to do together if they were friends.  Or secret boyfriends where only one of them knew the secret.

“Pick whatever you want,” Levi said by way of agreement.

Eren did not settle on something from Levi’s collection and instead found a movie on the television.

When he stopped on a channel that was playing _Escape From New York_ , Levi half suspected it was a joke.   

Levi finally took the blanket and pillow off the couch and moved them to his laundry room, which was more of a closet that had aspirations of being a room.  He settled on the opposite end of the couch from Eren and did his best to keep a smile off his face as Eren giggled throughout the movie that was never intended to be a comedy.

When the movie ended, they joked about it for a few minutes before he saw Eren to the door. 

“Thanks for dinner,” he said, lowly.  He was not entirely sure what he should be saying to end the night.  He doubted inviting Eren to visit until morning would be appreciated.  There was a certain amount of wooing that should be done before an offer like that and he should probably be sure whether or not anything was actually going on here first. 

_Well, you’ll probably have to just ask him._

He could do that right now while Eren was shrugging his blazer back on and if it didn’t go well, he could shove the younger man out his front door and slam it shut behind him.  Then lock it.  Then quit his job.

“Yeah,” Eren said, giving him a wide, casual smile.

There was no way Levi could force the question out, he realized.  Yes, he liked Eren in a romantic sense, but he also liked the relaxed company of Eren’s presence.  That could easily go away if he made the intern uncomfortable by asking weird questions. 

“We should do it again, sometime,” Eren hazarded.

Oh come _on_.  It sounded like being asked for a second date.  He needed to get this idiot out of his house so he could think clearly.

“Sure.”

“See you at work Monday,” Eren said, stepping across the threshold only to hesitate.  Like he was waiting for something.  If it was for Levi to tackle him to the ground and kiss his breath away, the older man would oblige him, Eren just needed to say the word.

Unfortunately, Eren held up a very disappointing closed fist that was apparently meant to be bumped.

“I’m not fist-bumping you.”

Eren snickered, grabbed Levi’s arm, folded his hand into a loose fist with his warm ones and bumped it.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Levi said, failing to keep the amusement off his face and ignoring the way his arm and hand burned where Eren had touched him.

After the young man had left, carefully pulling out of Levi’s driveway the older man found himself leaning heavily against his shut front door.

He absently stroked his forearm where Eren had grabbed him, mind swirling around trying to figure out what Eren wanted from him.  He was still there half an hour later when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

It was a text from Eren.

**_I had fun tonight.  Seriously, we should hang out again._ **

Levi’s heart skipped a beat.

Shit.  This was going so far beyond just a simple crush.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was later than I intended. Between this chapter and the previous I had nine flights so I was a bit busy.
> 
> I know you all wanted a steamy dinner date, so did I. Instead you got anxious wondering with a dash of awkward, much like the majority of my previous ventures in romance. I'm really trying to make it feel like a naturally progressing relationship before things get too crazy. 
> 
> At this point I want to estimate that we're roughly halfway through this venture judging by my pacing and the plot points I have planned. There are two scenes coming up that I'm really looking forward to writing. Feces are projected to impact the bladed rotating motor.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Earlier this week I had told someone I was determined not to add anymore characters without having a plan for them. Not two days later I turned myself into a liar. Exactly half of the events in this chapter were completely unplanned including the renegade character.
> 
> Wasn't even planning to update this for another week... had been trying to focus on another fic. I feel very undisciplined right now.

“So how did it go, Romeo?” Hange asked Monday morning, leaning over the side of Levi’s desk like she owned it.  He glanced at her, setting his briefcase underneath and refusing to acknowledge the way Petra perked up in his peripheral.  He could see the redhead not-so-subtly move forward, not bothering to feign like she wasn’t eavesdropping.

“Not now, Hange,” he dismissed with a sigh and placed his hand on the back of his chair to pull it out.

“Uh oh.  That doesn’t sound encouraging.  Did your little date end badly?”

“Date?” Petra asked.  Levi shot her an annoyed glare which did nothing to faze his nosy co-worker. 

“Here, come to my office,” Hange said, grabbing his forearm and tugging him.  Levi was surprised to find his feet cooperating even though his worn mind wanted to drown itself in work just so he had something else to focus on.

When the door clicked shut behind him, Hange was ushering him into her chair while she sat on her desk.  She assumed what she must have believed to be caring expression, posture inclined towards him while she stared unblinkingly.  It was the unflinching look that was making him uneasy, as though she were far too invested in his depressingly not-relationship with his intern.

“Well?  Spill.”

“There’s nothing to spill.”

“Nothing?”

“We ate dinner and watched a movie.  Then he left.”

“That’s it?” he could see the visible disappointment as she deflated, shoulders sagging, expression dropping.  Her reaction did nothing to void his discomfort.

“That’s it.”

“No flirting?  No unnecessary touches?”

Levi hesitated in his answer.

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly.

“How do you _not know_?” she asked as if he had just told her he didn’t know his own birthday.  Apparently flirting and all that were always obvious in her world.

“He was acting kind of shy or something.  I don’t know.”  He felt it bore repeating that he really had no clue.

Hange threw her hands into the air as if she didn’t know what to do with him.  The look she gave was like a mother wholly disappointed in her child’s behavior. 

“You have to grab him by the collar and kiss him.  Hard.”

“That’s assault.”

“Only if he’s not interested.”

They stared at each other.  Her hands were still in the air.  Levi was the first to break the silence when it began to go on for what seemed like an awkwardly unusual amount of time.

“I have to get back to work, now.”

-

Levi spent the morning attempting to do work but instead he kept darting his gaze over to the brunet who was busy building a fake spreadsheet of data.  He could really only see the top of his head and occasionally a flash of his eyes above the computer monitor, but when Eren Yeager was focused it appeared he shut out the world around him.  Including the staring from his dark-haired co-worker.

Levi wished Petra was as oblivious as Eren because when she glanced up to catch Levi looking over her shoulder, it took only a half-spin of her chair to see what was so interesting.  For the rest of the morning he caught the redhead giving him Cheshire cat grins whenever his eyes gravitated back towards the intern.

“Date, huh?” she had asked at one point.

He hadn’t bothered to respond.  Funny how one of his favorite co-workers could plummet to the bottom of that list so quickly.

When Levi had come out of the breakroom with tea steeping at one point he had a clear line of sight to Eren’s profile.  It was that same vaguely-psychotic serial killer look on his face as he worked and Levi was entranced.  Without really meaning to, he had walked over to the edge of the desk Eren was working at, gaze pinned to the drawn brows and intense green eyes. 

The intern snapped his face over to Levi, sensing another presence and Levi had that look focused solely on him.  He felt his spine light up as some primal alert swept through him, and for the life of him he couldn’t tell if it was a survival instinct or a mating one.

In an instant, Eren’s expression cleared and he gave Levi a half-smile, but that edge of danger was still lingering in the creases around his eyes.  How anyone could have an expression like that when building spreadsheets… well, actually, maybe it they couldn’t get their formulas right.

“Morning,” the younger man greeted.

“Not for much longer.”

Eren glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of his screen and seemed surprised. 

“I didn’t even notice.”

“You want to grab lunch?” he wasn’t sure why he asked.  He had packed a lunch.  He knew Eren typically packed a lunch.  They both already had lunch here; was he coming off as obvious and desperate?

“Thanks, but I want to finish this.  Once I’m on a roll I don’t like to stop.”

Levi didn’t want to read into things, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Eren was trying to avoid being alone with him or if the younger man really was just intent on finishing.  Maybe Eren had found Saturday evening too awkward? 

“Some other time, then.”

“Sure.”

It was time to walk away.  Lingering would be weird. 

He turned back towards his desk.

Fucking hell, Petra was looking at him.  He watched as she covered her mouth, why would she… her shoulders were shaking.  She was giggling at him.

He was going to steal all her white-out.  And her stapler.  And maybe a few of her pens.

-

Levi spent the rest of the day trying to distract himself with work, but he couldn’t focus.  His hands started itching to do more than pluck away at a keyboard and by 1:00 he was pushing his chair away from his desk and sneaking into the janitor’s closet down the hall. 

He locked himself into one of the meeting rooms along the corridor and scrubbed until his hands felt raw.

The next few days Eren was at A & P, but it wasn’t like it helped much.

-

On Thursday Eren was staring at the checklist.  The tech floor hadn’t been cleaned yet, so he could easily offer to take that on while Thomas took care of the lobby.  His nerves had been thrumming lowly, the tension had been gradually building in him all week.  He couldn’t hardly focus on anything else, so concentrated on the spreadsheet hiding Levi’s code.  It had been in the back of mind for days now.  On his way to work, eating dinner with Mikasa, watching shows with Armin he was thinking more about what he was preparing himself to do than what he had been doing at the time.

Levi had modified the code to self-delete after installation before the end of the day on Monday.  All the techs at A & P would ever see on the memory stick was a set of worthless data that they wouldn’t be bothered to take more than a cursory glance at. 

Even now, the drive was resting heavily in his pocket, a shift of weight he was hyper aware of as he walked.  He reached down for the radio clipped at his belt and raised it to his mouth.

“Three to three.”

There was a long pause while he waited for a response.

“Three, go ahead,” Thomas’s voice eventually sounded through the speaker.

“I’m going to head down to start on tech.”

“10-4.  I’ll meet you down there in a few.”

Eren mentally flinched.  He was already nervous enough knowing he’d have the security guard’s eyes on him, but having to dodge Thomas’ as well was unplanned for.  He took a breath.  He could still easily do it.  Just hide the drive in a cloth as he wiped down the counter and subtly leave it behind.  It was actually really simple.

Acting normal was the hard part.

Steadying himself, he radioed the security office to let them know he needed an escort.  He was told to go down to the tech floor and he would be met there.  So he stood in his own nervous jitters for ten minutes in the hallway while he waited on security to arrive.  He had his cleaning cart ready and memory stick already wrapped in a cloth, anxious to get it out of his possession.  It wouldn’t look good if he was found with a flash drive identical to the ones in the tech lab with what appeared to be test data on it. 

Almost belatedly, he remembered to call Levi, his phone synched to the Bluetooth earphone he was currently adjusting. His smartwatch was linked around a belt loop on his pants face flashing when the older man’s smooth voice picked up. 

“Eren?”

“Yeah,” he breathed out, inexplicably relieved.

“I can hear you,” Levi confirmed, his presence in Eren’s ear soothing the frayed edges of his nerves.

The elevator behind him dinged with an arrival and he nearly jumped out of his skin.  He might need more soothing.

Deep breath.

If he wasn’t careful, he’d be hyperventilating by the end of the night.  Exhaling, he turned to give Thomas a half smile.  The other janitor eyed Eren’s earphone, “Music?”

“Keeps me from going nuts,” Eren said, doing an admirable job of not squirming from Thomas’ innocent question.

“I know what you mean,” he replied, reaching up to tug his phone half out of his pocket, corded earphones wrapped around it.  Eren relaxed slightly as he reminded himself that there was nothing abnormal about listening to music while you worked.  He chit chatted with Thomas for the next few minutes until the guard showed up, trying to ignore how on edge he felt. 

The first lab they walked in, Eren’s eyes were drawn to the large dried spill of who-knows-what in the middle of the floor.  He realized the company employed janitors to clean up after everyone, but it was obvious none of the lab workers had even tried to wipe it up, or apparently call anyone to do it.  He wondered how long it had been sitting there as the lab workers ignored its existence.

Gross. 

“I’ll take the broom; you follow with the mop?” Thomas suggested.

“Sure,” he answered.  There was nothing wrong with this plan of action until Thomas put the broom away and started to reach for a cloth to start wiping down counters.  The cloth currently wrapped around a flash drive.

-

Levi listened with half an ear as Eren chatted with a co-worker.  When the conversation died down, he assumed they must have started working.  Levi himself was in Erwin’s office with a bottle of wood polish and a rag.  Everyone else had long since gone home for the night so he was free to do as he pleased.

What he pleased was meticulously straightening up Erwin’s office and polishing everything in it to a high shine.  In the morning Erwin would know exactly what he had done and would debate with himself whether to call Levi in for a pointless verbal reprimand or to just let it go.  He wouldn’t be able to witness it from his desk, but just knowing the struggle that would be going on in Erwin’s office was satisfying enough.

Levi was admiring his shadowy reflection on the wooden surface when he heard a sharp intake of breath from where his phone sat on speaker.

His eyes shot towards where it waited on the windowsill.  “Eren?” he called out automatically, even as he knew Eren wasn’t in a position to reply at the moment.  He waited tensely for a clue as to what was going on.

-

Eren watched, wide-eyed as Thomas’s hand stretched towards the cloth.  His heart thudded behind his eyeballs only to see that hand bypass the cloth entirely to grab the roll of garbage bags sitting on the small tray attached to the cart’s handles.

Dully, he stood there as Thomas went around to the garbage cans, emptying them out and replacing the bags with fresh ones.  While tying the first, Thomas turned back to place the full garbage bag on the cart to be taken out only to see Eren standing there like an idiot.  He had completely stopped mopping.

“Earth to Eren.”

With a startle, the brunet squeaked out an apology and focused back on the floor.  Thomas snorted at him and walked over to the two other trash cans on the opposite side of the room.

Eren wrung out the mop when he finished, securing it back on the cart.  He hastily grabbed the cloth, feeling for the drive with the tips of his fingers within the fabric.  Reassured, he began to spray down the work tables with cleanser.  When they left the lab, rather than put the cloth back on the cart, Eren stuffed it into his pocket. 

When they finally got to the electronics lab Eren had decided he would start wiping the counters first and just get it out of the way.  Once the drive was left with the others, he’d be less of a wreck, in theory. 

He pushed the cart into the room behind Thomas parking it to the side.

“Say, can you get me some of the spray and a rag?  There’s a spot over here on the floor where someone slopped some coffee.”

Eren reached for the nearest rag, pulling it out of his pocket before he realized what he was doing.  Spinning around more to hide his face than anything, Eren fumbled for the spray bottle and another cloth, taking both in one hand and stuffing his drive-laden cloth back in his own.

Thomas accepted the spray and secondary cloth with a look of amusement.

“What’s up with you tonight?  Your head isn’t here.”

“Sorry, I know,” Eren laughed, mind racing as he tried to come up with something plausible, “I uh, I have a date after our shift and I’m really nervous about it.”  If a date was Levi giving him a ride home.

As though summoned by his thoughts, Levi’s chuckle filtered through his earphone, “Did you want me to dress up?  I can probably throw some rose petals on the passenger’s seat.”  He had to fight back a grin.

Thomas took the spray to the spot on the floor and then Eren grabbed the bottle from him to hit the counters.  He steadily made his way over to the laptops where the drives were still all scattered, like the previous week.  When he got there, he wiped the cloth over the counter and tried to lift it up to leave the memory stick behind.

Only it didn’t come out.

The stick was tangled in the fabric.  At this point he just wanted to bang his head on the counter.

Breathe.  One, two.  This was not rocket science.  Hell, even if it were he could probably handle that better than getting a stupid piece of plastic unwrapped from a fucking rag.

Calmer, he picked at the edge of the cloth, refolding like he was trying to get more surface area for wiping and lightly shook the drive to roll quietly onto the counter next to another that looked just like it. 

His hands were trembling as he finished cleaning the counters. 

When they finished cleaning the labs and moved onto the office area Eren was still trembling minutely.  It helped a little when the security guard left.  Eren ended up vacuuming while Thomas emptied the garbages, so he completely failed to read off any employee names to Levi, instead only committing a handful to memory to mumble to the older man as he wrapped up the vacuum cord and hooked the machine back onto his cleaning cart.

At the very least, Levi could query a search for those few names if and when the information started to dump after the code was activated. 

-

Eren pulled open the door of the car and sat quietly without his usual greeting.  Levi frowned over at him, watching as Eren awkwardly fumbled with the seatbelt, hands unsteady.

“You okay?” he asked after a moment.

Eren’s head shot up and he looked at Levi, wide-eyed. 

“Oh, um… yeah.  I got the memory stick in place.  I didn’t think it would be so…” he let out a breathy noise that was twinging towards hysterics.

Levi huffed out a ghost of a laugh at Eren’s response, but inwardly he was wincing.  The younger man looked a lot paler than usual. 

“You want to go get a drink?  You look like you need to calm down.”

“Actually, yeah.”

Levi turned back to look out the windshield, fingers drumming absently on the steering wheel as he thought of where to take Eren.  The intern was a nervous wreck right now.  He needed someplace where the atmosphere was relaxed and the drinks preferably strong.

“All right, we’ll go to Connie’s.”

Connie’s was, as Eren found out, not so much the house of one of Levi’s friends as it was a margarita bar owned by a man named Connie, who was one of Levi’s friends.

Sort of.

Levi led him up to the bar where a short guy with a buzz cut was pouring out two margaritas into glasses for a waitress to deliver to a table.  Before they could even sit, Levi took out a baby wipe from a travel pack in his pocket to wipe down the bright green vinyl of his stool cover.  The bartender watched, unimpressed.

“Do you have to do that every time?  People are going to think this place isn’t clean.”

“No, people are going to think I’m weird, but yes, this place isn’t very clean.”

Eren smiled awkwardly as he took his place on the white stool next to Levi’s.  The seats alternated in green, white and red, the colors of the Mexican flag.  Unsurprisingly, the bar was decorated in typical Mexican kitsch.  There were piñatas sporadically hung from the ceiling, a few national flags hung on the walls along with random sombreros and skeletons -presumably for El Día de los Muertos celebrations. 

“I clean it every night!” the man insisted.

“I’ve seen the way you clean,” Levi said, as if that was an argument to end this debate, “We’ll get a pitcher of your Margarita Especial and a water.”  Really, the only difference Levi had seen between a regular margarita and Connie’s Margarita Especial was the quality of the liquor.  He assumed it was special because you weren’t guzzling down bottom shelf lighter fluid.

Eren raised a brow at him.

“You can take tomorrow off, so don’t worry about being responsible tonight.  I’ll just drag your ass out of here when I’m sick of this place.”

Eren’s mouth snapped into a smile like a rubber band, “Well, when you put it like that…”  Levi looked away from that expression that was colored with something grateful, as if the younger man knew exactly was Levi was doing.  That stupid smile was doing things to his insides, bad things.  He didn’t want it to stop.

The bartender stepped back over, holding a glass.

“Which one of you pansies is taking the water?”

“I am, you shit.  By the way Eren, this is Connie.  He’s a shit.  Connie, Eren.”

“If I’m a shit, then what’s he?” Connie asked setting the glass in front of Levi.

Levi turned to look at Eren appraisingly.  There were several things that Levi thought Eren was, but he wasn’t about to admit to them.  “I’ll have to think about that.”

“What does that mean?” Eren asked.

“It means I haven’t made up my mind yet.”  A flat out lie. 

Connie set the pitcher in between them then and brought out two clean glasses.  Levi tried to wave his away, but the bartender pointedly ignored him.  “Don’t worry, this asshole is just trying to avoid admitting that he likes you.” 

“Don’t you have other customers to harass?” Levi asked, aware that Connie meant ‘like’ in a general sense. Not the twelve-year-old girl version of _like_ -like that Levi really felt.  Eren poured out a glassful next to him, blissfully unaware of the older man’s internal battle with maturity.

“It’s a Thursday night and this place is in a dying strip mall.  Also, it’s only like 8:00.  There’s five other people in here and one of them’s the waitress.”

Levi had noticed that there were only two booths occupied when they walked in.  It was fairly dead, like he had anticipated when he chose this place.  Not that the bar ever had a huge amount of customers anyway, mostly due to its small size.  It wasn’t as though it would appeal to the dinner crowd.  Connie’s served appetizers, but didn’t have a real kitchen by any stretch of the imagination.  Levi suspected that it consisted solely of a deep fryer, a pizza oven, and a microwave.

He would be correct.

Still, Connie’s did enough business to stay afloat, most of its customers being locals.  Friday and Saturday nights every booth and seat had a tendency to fill up in sharp contrast to the rest of the week.  With the exclusion of Wednesdays.  The bar sponsored a local softball team that would come in after their game to bemoan their loss.  They didn’t have any talented players.  Almost as if offering solace for how badly they sucked, the bar ran a different drink special every Wednesday that the players drunkenly appreciated.

“So how do you know Levi?” Eren asked when Connie had come back to check on their progress, shaking his head at the glass of water and disappointingly high level of liquid still in the pitcher.

“We play on a basketball team together.”

Eren looked dubiously at the bartender, then glanced at Levi, his lips pressed tightly together.  The older man could tell he was holding something back.  It wasn’t hard to guess what.

“He’s messing with you.  We’re both too fucking short to play.”

Eren tried fighting back the grin that wanted to break out on his face and lost. 

“Okay, so we were jockeys,” Connie tried.

“Amazingly, we’re both too tall for that,” Levi responded drily.

Connie laughed and took it upon himself to grab the pitcher and top off Eren’s glass, shooting a dirty look at Levi’s water again as he did so.

“I’m driving,” Levi said firmly.

“I’ll call you a cab.  Hell, I’ll even pay for it, just because we go way back.”

“No.  Do you know what happens in cabs?”  Never mind that Levi had used one just the previous Friday. 

“Fine, I’ll drive you home after we close.”

“I have work in the morning.”

“Eren, help me,” Connie said, turning to the green eyed man.

“Don’t involve me,” Eren grinned, pointedly lifting his glass to take another drink.  The nervous trembling was gone from his hands, Levi noted.  “So really, how do you two know each other?” the young man pressed again, not deterred from his earlier enquiry.

“We-” Connie started only to be interrupted by Levi.

“He lived next door to me growing up.  Little shit used to hide in the bushes with water balloons and try and throw them at me, then had the gall to ask for money for the ice cream truck.” 

Connie laughed heartily, like he had been some charming little neighbor boy that Levi had affectionately indulged.  In reality, the only reason Connie hadn’t been murdered was because Levi had to remind himself that beating up a kid four years his junior was heavily frowned upon.  Connie hadn’t really become more tolerable over the years so much as age and nostalgia had fooled Levi into a grudging friendship.  Admittedly, Connie’s sense of humor was actually funny to Levi now that the younger man no longer tried to pull pranks on him.

“This asshole would turn the hose on me.  Pretended like he was watering the bushes and then act like he hadn’t known I was in there.  I don’t think I ever got him with a balloon once.”

“Served you right.”

Eren glanced back over to Levi, his finger absently tracing the rim of his glass.

“Wait… you’re from this city?”  A reasonable question.  Most of the interns and employees of Klorva had hometowns scattered across the country and beyond.  The assumption that Levi must originally be from here if his childhood neighbor lived here as well was correct.  Part of the reason Erwin had ever caught Levi was because he was operating in the same city as Klorva’s headquarters.

“Born and raised,” he confirmed. 

“Okay, so how do _you_ know Levi?” Connie countered, turning the conversation on Eren.

“Illegal cock fighting rings.  We like to watch chickens go apeshit on each other.”

Levi snorted into his water as Connie burst into another round of laughter. 

By the end of the night Eren had finished the pitcher alone, much to Connie’s apparent disgust with Levi, and had even been goaded into taking a shot of some hellish mixture of alcohols that the bartender had produced.  Eren had seemed fine despite it all, but as is the nature of tequila, it took standing up for the intern to realize just how gone he was.

“Whoa…” Eren said, stumbling a little while Levi signed the receipt for the credit card transaction.  He eyed Eren warily, ready to step out and catch him if necessary.  Green eyes were sliding unsteadily across the room before coming back to shakily land on Levi.

“How much tequila did you put in the pitcher?”  It was asked casually enough, but Levi knew that Connie liked to try and get him drunk.  Said Levi was hilarious like that.  Asshole.

“Yeah…” Connie shrugged, looking unconcerned, “he’s messed up.”  The pitcher had held roughly three margarita glasses worth, but the bar didn’t really skimp on the glass size.

“As long as he doesn’t puke in my car.”

“Levi,” Eren said solemnly placing a hand on the shorter man’s shoulder and looking like he was delivering news of a death in the family, “I might.”

“Then you better warn me so I can pull over or I’m waking you up tomorrow to clean my car out before work.”

It was a bluff.  Not only because he was the one who had decided to get Eren plastered in the first place, but also because someone who was going to be as hungover as Eren was would probably not manage Levi’s standards of disinfecting.  He might try and force Connie to clean it out since really, it was the bartender who had more than likely made their pitcher a double.

“Bring your boy back again, Levi.  Anyone who’s not afraid to poke fun of you is welcome anytime.”

Levi’s heart skipped when Connie referred to Eren as his, stupidly.  He had to admit, he liked the idea.

“Yeah,” Eren agreed, leaning on the bar, possibly because standing up straight was too mighty a challenge at the moment.

“Hasta luego,” Connie called after them as Levi ushered Eren through the door.  He lifted a hand in farewell back.  Getting him through the first door was easy, but in the small entryway of the bar, caught between an interior and exterior door, the younger man decided to take a breather by leaning against the wall and refusing to budge.

“Eren, move.”

“I’m good.”

Levi shot him a look as if he believed otherwise, but Eren had his eyes closed, head tipped back against the wall and didn’t see.  He was slowly sinking towards the ground, legs giving out gently.  Levi stepped around him and opened the outside door, grabbing at Eren’s forearm and tugging him forward.  The intern stumbled, crashing into Levi who had to take a step back to balance them.

Hands were pressed against Levi’s chest, steadying and entirely too warm.  They stayed there, sliding slightly over his pectorals.  If the younger man weren’t so drunk, he might have been alarmed at the pulse rate below his palms. 

“Sorry,” Eren half-giggled into Levi’s ear, his exhale of breath tickling Levi’s hairline.  The shorter man closed his eyes for a moment, memorizing the feel of a bicep beneath one hand and a hip beneath the other. 

“C’mon,” he said without moving himself, “Let’s get you home.”

He hesitated before he followed through on his own suggestion, taking in Eren’s surrounding scent like some creepy pervert while the younger man was still in his arms. 

Resolving himself, he disentangled his limbs and led Eren over to his car, opening the door for him and leaning over his lap to buckle him in once he was seated, ignoring the protest denying the need for assistance.

The dissatisfied pout on Eren’s face was abnormally childlike compared to the expressions Levi was used to seeing on his face.  The older man gave in to the urge to chuckle and lightly ruffle Eren’s hair with his hand, for which he received a glare heated enough to melt steel.

If Levi were a weaker man he would have given in to the desire to kiss it off his face. 

“Stop being cute,” he said, ducking out of the car and shutting the door before walking around to the driver’s side.

“I’m not cute,” Eren protested as soon as Levi got in.

Levi shot him a sidelong glance.  “Sure.”

“Devilishly handsome,” he suggested, tongue stumbling over the word ‘devilishly’.

“Whatever you say,” Levi said, privately agreeing with the self-assessment.

“Hot, gorgeous even… too sexy for my shirt.”

“Keep your shirt on, I don’t want to get pulled over.”  Although Levi wondered how much he would really mind that as long as he had his half-dressed intern next to him.  Unfortunately or not, Eren listened to him and kept his clothing on.

When Levi pulled into a parking spot at Eren’s apartment building he watched for a full minute as Eren struggled to open his door.  With a sigh, he climbed out his side and began to walk around, but the younger man had finally figured it out and stumbled out before Levi could reach him.  As amusing as it was to watch Eren nearly plant his face into the ground, one hand snapping out to catch himself on his journey back to two feet, Levi managed to hold back any laughter.

If anything, Eren was less steady on his feet than when they had left Connie’s, more of the alcohol having been absorbed into his bloodstream.  Levi walked up to him as the younger man straightened and grabbed one of his arms to throw over his shoulders.

Eren let out a sound very much like a squawk.

“Got your keys on you?” he asked.

Eren dug in his pockets, searching.  Eventually he withdrew his hand and dropped the metal ring into Levi’s waiting palm. 

“Which one’s the building key?”

“The square one.”

Levi guided them into the building and after a brief interrogation managed to get Eren’s floor and apartment number from him.  He gently deposited Eren in a corner of the elevator while he pushed the button for their destination, glancing behind him to make sure Eren was still standing. 

So maybe a margarita pitcher was overdoing it.  At least Eren didn’t look so pale and nervous anymore.  Flushed and kind of a mess, really.  His clothing and hair was disheveled, although that was as much Levi’s fault for manhandling him than anything.

He’d probably enjoy the view more if Eren’s eyes weren’t so unfocused.

“All right there, champ?”

“Yeah.  Thanks, by the way, for getting me inside.”

“Kind of my fault,” Levi admitted.

“Yeah,” Eren agreed and burst into laughter.  Apparently that had been really funny for some reason that Levi missed.

When they got to the door of Eren’s apartment, the intern helped him figure out the correct key, although it probably would have been quicker if Levi had done it himself.  Eren was leaning against the door, large bug eyes watching drunkenly, when Levi finally slid the right key into the lock. 

“Levi…” Eren said, causing Levi to pause short of turning the handle.  He waited for the younger man to continue, but found himself trapped in a steady green gaze instead.

“…yeah?” he breathed out after a moment, heart pounding wildly for reasons he wasn’t entirely sure of.  Something about the air felt electrified and it took every ounce of willpower to keep his eyes trained on Eren’s rather than dropping lower to admire everything beneath them.

Eren raised a fist and gently tapped Levi’s face, knuckles dragging slowly along his cheekbone, lighting a fire in their path.  The brunet leaned a little closer as his fingers grazed the shell of Levi’s ear and his arm dropped to rest on his shoulder.

“Hasta luego,” he breathed and erupted into a storm of quiet giggles.  Levi closed his eyes and twisted the doorknob, none too gently shoving Eren through into the darkened apartment.

“Drink some water and go to bed, you idiot.”

“Aye aye, captain!” Eren said as he spun around to face the door and nearly fell.  The giggles hadn’t stopped.

“See you Monday.”

“Good night,” Eren said softly when he straightened, coming back to lean against the inside of the door frame.  His eyes were lidded in a way that made the older man want to pull him close and not let go.  Levi told himself it was the liquor and the late hour and that if he were smart he would be leaving before he did something stupid.

He pulled the keys out of the lock and shoved them into Eren’s hand, trying not to let his touch linger.  Not that Eren would probably notice in his current state.

“Good night,” Levi replied quietly and shut the door in his face.  “Don’t forget to lock it!” he called through the wood.

He waited until he heard bolts dutifully sliding into place before he went back downstairs to his car.  When he climbed into the driver’s side he leaned forward until his forehead bumped the steering wheel and stayed that way for ten minutes before he started the engine and drove home, insides knotted tensely. 

He tried to tell himself that there was nothing behind Eren’s deliberate grazing of knuckles on his face, even while the ghost of fingers could still be felt.  There was nothing to the way Eren had looked at him as he stood in his own doorway. 

He shouldn’t think of the way Eren had felt in his arms when he caught going out of Connie’s, warm hands braced against Levi’s chest and the low rumble of his laugh ringing through his memory.  Then there was the feel of his arm around Eren’s waist as he guided him back to his apartment.  Definitely shouldn’t be thinking about that.

He was going to Hell. 

You didn’t enjoy physical contact with an inebriated person that much and not go to Hell. 

When Levi was finally in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling in the dark and unable to sleep because of that stupid, way-too-attractive, funny, clever, adorable, occasional-psychopathic-eyed intern, he was able to console himself with one thought.

At least now that Eren had placed the memory stick, they could relax a little.  Once the lab technicians at A & P plugged it in, the hard part would be over.  He just hoped the plan worked.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a little preemptive when I said that 'feces are projected to impact the bladed rotating motor'. I had a paragraph of notes for this chapter -60 words worth- of which I covered 3: Eren stages stick. 
> 
> Even now, I'm looking at this and thinking, 'Why is everyone drinking so much?' There wasn't going to be any of that in this update. Next time though, those feces are coming.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the (extremely) late update. I had a number of personal issues that hit me right in a row on top of school. Also, I had to take General Chemistry II, which took all my free time. I really hate chemistry. So much. So, so much. I'm glad I never have to take anymore.

“Anything, yet?” Eren asked as he slid into Auruo’s chair and pulled up next to Levi at his desk. 

“Nothing,” the older man sighed, leaning back.  It had been nearly a week since Eren had staged the memory stick and they had yet to receive a single scrap of data.

Eren’s lips twisted in a way that should have been unattractive, but instead it just highlighted the shape of his cheekbones.  What a jerk.

“This is like fishing, sitting around all day waiting for a byte,” Eren sighed, leaning back.

“Did you just make a pun?”

“No,” the younger man quickly replied, struggling to keep a smile of his face.

Levi narrowed his eyes, before replying, “I _will_ slap you.”  He wouldn’t, and Eren knew it, if the way his teeth flashed was any indication.  Or that was something he was into, whichever.

A beat passed before Eren scooted closer again and folded his arms on top of Levi’s desk, looking up at him pitifully.

“This doing nothing is killing me.”  As opposed to actively engaging in illegal activities?

“I assume you mean figuratively,” Levi said, flicking his arm, “If you die and I have to train a new intern how to make coffee I’m going to be irritated.”

Eren let out a half-amused snort, and gently elbowed Levi back.  The older man felt his insides stutter at the playfulness.  It made his skin itch in the worst way.

“We’ll give it a few more days and if nothing happens, you’ll have to try again,” he said, once he got his mind back on track. 

The intern beside him nodded with a grimace.  They had been hoping that the main risk for Eren was over, but since their first attempt was proving fruitless, they’d have to try again. 

“All right.”

Levi watched him for a moment, seeing the way his brows were drawn towards each other and a frown was settled on his face.  He reached his hand out and bravely put it on Eren’s knee.  His heart was jumping in his chest. 

“I should get a text alert if the data feed starts.  Day or night.  I’ll give you a call the moment anything happens.”

Eren gave him a small not-quite smile, his green eyes a touch softer, but no less anxious.

Levi’s heart turned to gelatin at the sight. 

-

Eren shrugged his jacket down his shoulders after following Mikasa through the door, hanging it up as he toed his shoes off.  Another day of nothing happening.  It was beginning to feel like he was a legitimate intern, keeping busy with copying and filing while they waited for the code to trigger.

“How was your day?” Mikasa asked, locking the door.

“Fine,” he sighed.  Really, he was tired, the constant tension of anticipation was started to wear on him.  He knew he was more irritable lately.

“What about your project you were helping with in the lab?  How’s that going?”  Mikasa had obviously picked up on it.  Few people knew him and his moods better than her.  Normally it was comforting having her around, but not when he was keeping secrets from her. 

“No results yet.”

She frowned at him.  He knew it was obvious to her that something was bothering him.  Eventually, she would just come out and ask, but not only did he not want to talk about it, he couldn’t and she wasn’t going to let this go.  Not until she had wringed an answer out of him.

Rather than stand there in front of the door all night being depressed, he headed for the kitchen.  He needed the physical space from her as much as anything.  He didn’t like worrying her, especially since he had brought his on himself.  If she knew what was going on, she would understand, but she wouldn’t agree.  Worse, she would probably try to stop him.

Eren opened the cupboard to reach for a glass when he heard Mikasa follow him in.  Apparently, she was feeling tenacious today, which he _really_ wasn’t in the mood for.  He attempted to act like he wasn’t aware that anything was wrong, placing his glass under the faucet and turning it on.  She waited while it filled with water, giving him the chance to start talking of his own accord.  She could wait all night; he was stubborn, too.

“What’s up with you, Eren?  You’ve been in a funk all week.”

_Oh nothing much, just all my attempts at corporate espionage have failed over the past few weeks._

“It’s been one of those weeks.  Nothing’s really going right,” he evaded, taking a drink. 

Her expression softened a bit.  “Tell me about it.”

It may not have actually been a lie, but it was still backfiring.  Inside his head, he was scrambling for an answer.  He brought his glass down, holding it near his waist and looking at it for a moment.

“There’s a project I’m working on that we can’t get to go the way we want.  I’m not sure where we’re messing up.  We’ve all been in a pretty rough mood and we’re probably feeding off each other.” 

“Jean seemed happy enough.”

“He’s on a different project.  Besides, he’s always happy when he sees you.”

“So talk me through it, maybe it will help if you explain it to me.  You might realize what’s wrong.”

Normally, her persistence was an endearing quality that he admired in her.  _Normally_ , she helped him with his problems.  Unless it was dating or doing anything too reckless.  Or when he wanted to take down an unethical corporation through illicit means.

“It’s kind of top secret since it’s still in development.  I can’t say anything about it.”

When did he get so good at lying?  Especially to her?  She had razor sharp intuition and could usually see right through him.  Maybe it was because he had tagged her sympathy card first.  She did have a tendency to let her emotions blind her.

“Okay.  Well try it with someone at work tomorrow, then.  See if it helps.  What should we do about dinner?”

He breathed a sigh of relief at the subject change, thankful she was letting the issue drop.

“I’m exhausted.  Can we order in?”

“Not on our budget.”

“What if we squeezed it a little?” Truthfully, with the incentive pay he had been receiving they could afford the delivery.  She couldn’t know about that, though.

“No.  We have plenty to work with here.  Besides, I saw your new watch, Eren.  I know how expensive those things are.  I looked them up.”

A chill fled down his back.  _Shit_.  He thought he had kept it out of sight.  He wondered when she had seen it.  Did he leave it out in his room at all?

“That’s creepy stalkerish, Mikasa.”

“You kidding me?  It takes 30 seconds to Google it on my phone.  I was curious.”

“Still creepy.”

“We’re making payments on that couch too, you know,” she argued.  She had been paying him what she believed to be her half, true, but the bills she handed over he turned around and would periodically stick in her dirty jeans pockets for her to find when she did laundry.  If she didn’t watch her bank account like a hawk, he would just deposit it there. 

“Which is why I had been setting money aside for the watch for a while, now,” he said, hoping she would buy it.  “It’s _my_ money.  I’m an adult.  I get to choose how to spend what I earn.” Even to his own ears, that sounded too defensive.  His tone pitched too high.

“You’re also my roommate and I don’t want to be stuck paying for your share of the rent or the utilities because you were being irresponsible.”

He felt his temper rising.  If he was making what she was, she would have a reason to be concerned.  There wouldn’t be much left over at all. Even so, she wasn’t his mother and she didn’t have a right to tell him how to spend as long as everything was paid for.

He was about to open his mouth, but she beat him to it.

“Just be careful, all right?  It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve had spending money and we shouldn’t go crazy.  Living paycheck-to-paycheck sucks.”

Just like that, his anger fizzled.

“I’ll make us spaghetti,” she said, her voice a little softer, gentler. 

“And I will eat an unfair share of it,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiling just as softly.

He was expecting the solid punch to his arm and fell to the floor dramatically.

“You just shattered my humerus.”

“You think you’re funny, but you’re no,” she said, barely sparing him a glance.

“No, I think I’m think I’m humorous.  Until now.  Because you broke it.”

“I’m going to set everything you own on fire.”

He laughed, getting up, “I’m going to go shower.”

She waved him away disinterestedly as she pulled a pot out of the cupboard.

He made a quick stop at his bedroom to tug off his tie and grab a pair of sweatpants, before heading to the bathroom.

When he got out, towel wrapped around his waist and water dripping on the floor, he scooped up his dirty clothes and made his way to his room, digging his phone out of his pants pockets before dropping his bundle in his hamper.

He thumbed the screen on, hoping to see a text or missed call from Levi, and disappointed when he again saw nothing.

-

Levi was sitting at his desk, shifting through his e-mails and bored out of his mind.  Eren had left for his shift at A&P a half hour ago, Seabiscuit was reporting nothing of value, and Leonhardt was helping Levi’s former favorite co-worker, Petra. 

After talking it over, he and Eren had decided that he should continue to get the names of any employees from the tech division.  They had a roster half-built after Eren had drawn him a rough sketch of the office with the desks and started assigning what names he had collected to which workstation.  If they could ever get a data feed, Levi would be typing each of those names into a query to see what popped up. 

That’s when he felt those eyes on him again.  Erwin could be really creepy when he wanted to.  Levi set down the paperclip chain he had been building and slowly swiveled around to face the blond bastard.  Erwin tilted his head to indicate that Levi should come over before disappearing back inside his office.

With an irritated grunt, he got up and followed.

Erwin was seated behind his spotlessly clean desk, his reflection vaguely outlined in the gleaming wood.  It was tough to get a polish that meticulous, Levi would know.

“Have a seat.”

“What’s this about?” Levi asked, walking over to stand next to a chair.

“How are things going?”

“Right now, they’re not.”

“I see.”

“We’re going to try again with Eren’s next shift if nothing happens.  I want him to try to get my code on one of the employee’s computers if nothing else.  It won’t be the secure server, more than likely, but its better than nothing.”

“Can’t you just hack in?”

“I’d only have a short window to find what I’m looking for before they notice me, and once I breach their systems, they’d be on high alert.  If I don’t get what I’m after the first time, its gets a lot harder, and if they figure out what I’m after…”

“Then they’ll take measures to ensure that you never find it.”

“Exactly.”

Erwin steepled his fingers, deep in thought, peering down.

“Why is my desk so shiny?”

“I heard they hired a new janitor.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

-

When Levi got back to his desk, he checked his phone to see he had a new text.

He entered his passcode and opened up his messaging app.  His eyes went wide, and he unlocked his computer to confirm.  Opening the program, he saw that it was indeed, live.

He couldn’t quite fight the grin.

Quickly, his fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in queries and seeing what sort of results were thrown back his way.  Spinning, he reached to his right where he kept the office map Eren had drawn him and started typing in names.

His eyes scanned past the list of e-mails, documents, files…  They would need to spend the next few days shifting through all this.  He leaned back as he gazed at the screen, several lines of hits from a keyword Hange had given him.  He had organized it by date, newest at the top.  He figured it would make it easier to comb through everything chronologically.

It was good he did, or he would have missed the newest result, an e-mail from a few minutes ago.  Curiously, he clicked on it, eyes widening as grabbed his cell.

A hurried dial and he heard the other end pick up.

“Hel-“

“Kirschtein, get to Brenzka’s desk, now!  An e-mail just went out a few minutes ago.  See if anyone’s there.”

He doubted it.  If he were sending e-mails he shouldn’t from a computer he shouldn’t, he wouldn’t be sticking around afterwards.  Still, it was worth a shot.  There was always the chance Kirschtein would see something suspicious that would give them something to go on.

“On it,” Jean replied and Levi heard him get up and his breathing as he ran.

-

Jean jolted out of his chair like it was covered in fire-breathing spiders and dashed across the office.  He got a few odd looks, but he didn’t have time to worry about looking insane right now.  He skidded around the corner and took the hall towards Rico’s desk.  It was one that overlooked the shipping dock from the side, whereas the open floor for the rest of the department had a head-on view.  He’d be able to see into her office through her window from theirs if she didn’t always have blinds covering it. 

He was just turning the corner when he ran into a solid body.  Or rather, two bodies. 

“Hey, watch it!”

He was already stumbling to the ground from trying to avoid the collision at the last second and taking down one of them with him.  His phone clattered out of his hand at impact, skittering across the floor.  He began picking himself up and looked over to see just who it was he had taken out to find a familiar blond in a pencil skirt and heels.

“I’m so, so sorry.  Are you okay?” he asked, recognizing the flushed receptionist.

“You better be,” the tall brunette growled, kneeling down to fuss over the shorter girl.  Jean knew her too: Ymir, desk in the corner.

“It’s all right.  I’m fine,” the receptionist waved off.

“What were you thinking, charging around the corner like that?”

“I… it’s an emergency.  I ate at a food truck for lunch,” he said, picking himself up and holding out a hand to help the other girl.  They both looked at him before the brunette started snickering.

“Okay.  I’ll let it go, considering.  Just get your ass out of here before your emergency happens.”

Jean nodded, letting out another apology, scooping down to grab his phone and then having to detour to the bathroom until the girls were gone.

It was empty, to his relief.  Once he was securely in a stall, he brought his phone back to his ear.

“Levi?”

“Hey.  What the hell happened?”

“I ran into someone.  Literally.”

“Are you in Brenzka’s office?”

“No, they would have seen me run in.  It would have looked weird.  I’m in the bathroom.”

There was a pause.

“Are you talking to me while you’re shitting?”

“What?  No!  I’m just waiting for them to leave.”

After a minute, Jean carefully peeked out through the cracked door to see the hallway clear before stepping back out.  Quickly, he made his way to Brenzka’s office to find it empty.  He ducked inside and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  No stack of papers tipped over in a frenzy, no phone off the hook… nothing.  A brief check showed that no one was logged on to the computer.  The trash was empty and only two sheets of paper were in the recycling bin, both were shipping schedules. 

No luck.

He stepped back out of the office and spoke into his phone again.

“Nothing.”

“I’m not surprised.  Keep your eyes open,” Levi said and hung up.  Jean walked back to his desk, nerves dissolving in disappointment. 

Next time, he promised himself.

-

Eren chewed his lip as he rode the elevator down with Thomas to the R&D department.  He had a brand new thumb drive courtesy of Levi in his pocket.  The older man had retrofitted a tube of lip balm to house the drive itself.  The idea was discretion.  He wasn’t going to leave a drive around waiting for someone to use it, he was just going to jam it in a computer and hope that they would be able to piece enough together even if they couldn’t get access to the secure server.  He hadn’t been able to determine which computers those would be or if there were even any in the department. 

There was just one slight hiccup to the plan. 

“So you think you can handle the rest of the checklist by yourself?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.  Thanks for helping me hit this early.” 

Thomas was leaving early to go visit his sister in the hospital who was recovering from knee surgery.  Which meant they were taking care of all the two-man tasks early, including cleaning up the R&D department.  Early enough that not all the employees had left for the day yet.

When they got off the elevator, Eren could see the receptionist was packing up his desk for the day, making sure it was clear and organized for the morning.  When they got to the office itself, there were still a few occupied desks. 

Their security escort unlocked the first laboratory for them, and Eren hoped that by the time they finished, the rest of the employees would call it quits for the day.  He had cleaned these labs often enough by now that he could do it on autopilot.  He busied himself with the trash bins while Thomas took care of the counters.  Then they swept, mopped, and moved on to the next room.

Two of the laboratories were still in use, so they were skipped, but by the time they were finished, there was only one person left at their desk.  The security guard relocked the final lab behind them and headed back to his office as Thomas put a cleaning rag in the soiled bag and turned to Eren.

“Trash or vacuum?”

“Trash.  I’m going to make you work harder for skipping out on me,” Eren jibed with a quick grin. 

“Nah, you’re just being lazy.” 

While Thomas fumbled with getting the vacuum off the cart, Eren grabbed a roll of trash bags. 

He checked the garbage of the nearest desk as Thomas plugged in the vacuum, then moved to the next as it roared to life.  As he leaned down to pull out the bin, he put his ear phones in and thumbed through his recent contacts list until he found Levi’s name and dialed.

As he waited for the other end to pick up he continued along the rows of desks, steadily getting closer to the last remaining employee and further from the vacuuming Thomas.  Most of the desks were in an open area and he wasn’t going to try to use the thumb drive in any of them.  Not with Thomas around or with the security cameras. 

There were a few cubicles towards the far end of the room.  The trick would be to turn the computer on without anyone noticing or the security camera catching him long enough to stick the drive in and have the program download.  He could unplug the monitor from under the desk so it wouldn’t turn on when he started the computer.  He needed ten seconds for the code to download after that.    

He frowned as Levi’s voicemail message started to play.  He supposed Levi probably wasn’t expecting him to call yet, since they were a couple of hours early.

Eren had his head down and was reaching under a desk when he heard a lot of motion from the other side.  It was the one man that was still working.  He was hopefully getting all his things together so he could leave for the night.

“Shit!  Shit!  Shit!” the guy let out a distressed mutter.  Eren glanced up over the edge of the desk to see the top of the guy’s head.  He was standing, leaning forward slightly, and presumably looking at his computer screen in panic.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“What?” he asked startled, turning towards Eren as if he hadn’t realized he was there, which in all honesty, he probably hadn’t.

“Everything all right there?” he asked again, standing up after putting a fresh liner in the bin.

“Uh, yeah.  Fine.” 

Eren could recognize a dismissal when he was given one.  He nodded and continued on to the next desk, mind whirring.  He ducked down to change out the garbage, still hearing the guy mumbling to himself agitatedly. 

A few minutes later, the man quickly stalked away from his desk, coat under his arm and messenger bag in hand.  He was practically running out.

“Weird,” Eren muttered to himself, watching the guy hurriedly exit the office before looking over to Thomas only to find he had stopped vacuuming to watch the man as well.  His fellow janitor glanced over and caught his eye, giving him a questioning look.  Eren shrugged, bewildered.

He was about to move on when his watch flashed at him, indicating an incoming call.  He surreptitiously pressed the button to answer to hear Levi’s voice on the other end.

“We’ve got a data feed.”

Relief flooded through him and he hummed quietly in response.

“Can’t talk right now?”

“Yeah,” he let out, whisper soft.

“All right.  I’ll take you out for dinner and fill you in when your shift is over.”

There was a soft click and Levi hung up.

Elated, he sped through the rest of the trashes and it wasn’t until he and Thomas were back in the elevator that he realized he had forgot to get anymore names of people in the department for Levi to query.

They walked back to their janitor’s room to put the cart away.  Eren had to mop the lobby yet and check the bathrooms later to see if they needed any sprucing up, which was essentially a given seeing as how often the lobby bathrooms were used.

“I’m going to head out now.  Anything you need before I go?” Thomas interrupted his thoughts.

“No, I’ve got it.”

“All right.  Have fun.”

It wasn’t until he was in the lobby mopping that he considered something might be wrong.  To be fair, it wasn’t until the security guard tapped him on the shoulder and told Eren to come with him that he thought that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *plays suspenseful music*
> 
> I have a confession. This was written in March. It also originally had a fight scene between Mikasa and Eren, but I felt like it didn't fit. I've been sitting with this thing on my computer knowing that it needed some serious revision, but every time I thought I was going to have some free time to work on it, my group mates from Chemistry dropped the ball and I had to pick up the slack. It's okay though, because I am 95% certain I am the only one that passed. Did I mention I hate Chemistry? Because I do.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, too, am surprised by how quickly I updated. I wanted to do it now because I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow and I happened to have most of the chapter written.

Eren walked alongside the security guard, mind racing.  Nothing like this had happened on his other shifts.  If security needed something cleaned or their trash changed, they radioed for it.  No one hunted them down and wordlessly escorted them places.

He tallied through what had happened on his shift so far.  The data feed was active.  He thought about the guy who had been quietly freaking out at his desk maybe half an hour ago.  The employee who swore at his computer screen before rushing out of the office.

Had that guy realized their system was breached? 

Eren had seen Levi’s code himself, it was written to look like a background process of another program.  Something that wouldn’t be noticed by itself. 

He was itching to call Levi, but didn’t dare with the guard right next to him.  It wasn’t like he could have much of a conversation, anyway.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to make a phone call to ensure that the company you were illegally spying on hadn’t caught on when you were right next to one of their security personnel.    

Eren didn’t feel any better when they ended up walking into the security office.

“In here,” the guard said, gesturing to a small holding room.

“What’s going on?”

“Get in.  You’ll find out soon enough.”

He didn’t have to fake a confused face, because there was no way they could have traced the original flash drive he had staged back to him.  That was several shifts ago by now, anyway.  He complied with the guard anyway, if for no other reason than he would have a chance to dial up Levi and warn him that his code might have been found.

The door shut behind him as he stepped in, and he could hear the click of the lock.  That was bad.  He could feel a swell of nerves and tried to stay afloat by analyzing his surroundings.  There was no security camera in the room itself, but there was a large glass window that he could see the security guard through.  He was speaking on the radio, so Eren quickly tapped the face of his smart watch, keeping his wrist below the level of the window.  He hit redial as quickly as he could, anxiously waiting for the other end.

This time, Levi answered on the first ring and Eren turned away from the window and spoke quickly and quietly.

“Eren?”

“Something’s up.  I’m in the security office right now in a holding room.  I haven’t been told why.”

“Hold on.  I’ll see what I can do.  I’m running a query for security right now.  If they put anything in the computer system about this, I’ll find it.  Their phone system is digital, so I’ll track any calls.”

“Okay.”

Stay on the line, but put it on speaker.  I’ll mute my phone so no sound comes through on my end.”

Eren did as he was told and waited.  He took his watch and flipped it so the face pressed against the inside of his wrist in case it lit up to alert anyone that it was being actively used.  His Bluetooth speakers were dropped into his shirt pocket.

Forty minutes later he was still waiting and wasn’t sure if Levi was still listening when the door opened. 

He turned to look to see the security guard and a stern faced, auburn policewoman there.  He knew his eyes had widened ridiculously.

“Hey, wait.  What’s going on?”

“You been accused of theft,” the officer said.

“What?” the disbelief in his voice was almost palpable.  He may not have been a lawyer, but he knew that corporate espionage wasn’t called ‘theft’.  Even if, technically, it was.

“Turn around, hands against the wall,” she said. 

Despite his indignation, he knew better than to resist a cop.  He placed both hands against the wall.

“I didn’t steal anything.  I don’t know what this is about,” he said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice and failing.  Although, anger was better than guilt.

 “We have an employee who says otherwise,” she said, “Do you have any weapons on your person or anything you want to tell me about now before I find it?”

“Pocket knife.”

“Which pocket?”

“Front right.”

“I’m going to remove it now, keep your hands against the wall.”

Eren was silent as she brusquely removed the knife from his pocket and instructed him that she was going to do a brief pat down.  Her movements were perfunctory as she quickly ran from top to bottom, finding nothing else worthwhile other than his janitorial keyring which she handed to the guard.  She ended with grabbing one of his arms and snapping a cuff around it before doing the same with the other.  “I’m going to take you into the station for questioning.”

-

Eren was pushed into the back of a police car, the policewoman shutting the door behind him and dismissing the security guard who had escorted them down.

Eren watched the man as he re-entered the building, but turned his face towards the front of the vehicle when he heard the driver’s side open.  The woman slid in, buckled up, and started the engine.

The cruiser pulled away from the tree-lined entry of the building with a calm the backseat passenger couldn’t feel. 

Eren leaned back heavily against the seat, hoping that if nothing else, Levi got the information they needed.  He’d be okay if they at least got enough to cripple A&P, but he didn’t dare start talking on the off chance he said anything unintentionally incriminating.

Mentally, he ran through what his options were and what he knew about his current situation. 

He’d have to call his dad and explain what happened, then ask for his lawyer.  There was a possible eyewitness, who couldn’t have actually seen him do anything.  His money was still on that guy from the office if only because he had been acting distraught and it wasn’t long after he had run out that Eren had been escorted by the guard.

There shouldn’t be any physical evidence linking him to anything.  The case would be circumstantial and they’d have a hard time proving he committed a crime.  It struck him as odd, though.  He figured A&P would prefer to handle something like this in house, because any information he was after would be more incriminating for them.

Maybe he was being accused of a different theft? 

He hadn’t been read his rights, so he technically wasn’t under arrest yet, he didn’t think.  That could all change once he got to the station.  Still, he had nothing on him… except the thumb drive made to look like a tube of chapstick.

Shit.

He didn’t think they’d open it.  It weighed about the same. 

It wasn’t that unusual for people to carry around thumb drives anymore, though.  Mikasa kept one on her keychain.  If they looked at it, it might seem like an odd document for a janitor to have saved.  He wasn’t sure what they’d make of it. 

He was jerked out of his thoughts when the car pulled into a dark, disused parking lot.  He sat up quickly.

“Where are we?”

“This is your stop, kid.”

He shot her a confused look.

“This is an abandoned lot.”  It looked like the sort of lot where people were dragged out to in the middle of the night with burlap sacks over their heads and then shot execution style.  At least according to the several mafia movies Eren had watched, which were unfortunately being dredged up from memory with alarming detail.

“Did I stutter?”

“I- no ma’am.”

Further inquiries were stalled when another set of headlights pulled up and turned into the parking lot.  It was an uneasy second until he could place them as belonging to a car Eren recognized.  Levi.  He had no idea how or what the man had done, but Eren was willing to do all the filing he was ever asked without complaint until the end of time. 

He turned back to the policewoman, but she was already out of the car.  He listened to the crunch of gravel as she walked around and opened his door while the driver got out of the other car. 

“C’mon, out you go,” she coaxed at him, not unlike a dog.  There was a twitch at the corner of her mouth that might have been amusement.

Eren stumbled out, clumsy with his hands cuffed, until she reached out a steadying hand to help him.

Levi was walking over as the officer helped him find his balance.

“Thanks, Isabel.  I owe you.”

Eren whipped his head back around to stare at the redheaded policewoman.

“ _You’re_ Isabel?”

“He told you about me?  I’m flattered.  All good things?” she asked, the sternness she had on her face from earlier gone without a trace, a wide smile full of teeth taking residence instead.

“Uh…”

“What?”

“I just… didn’t expect you to be a cop.”

“What did you expect?” she asked, grin faltering a little as suspicion filtered in her voice.

“I kind of thought you were maybe in prison.”

She gave Levi a flat look.

“Are you and Farlan still going on about how I’m on the wrong side of the law?  You two think you’re funny, but you’re not.”

Levi ignored her.

“You okay?” he asked, looking Eren in the eye.

“My nerves aren’t, but the rest of me’s good.  How did you manage this?” Eren tried to gesture, but his linked wrists prevented much movement.

“Here, I’ll get those off.  Although…” she turned to Levi, “I can keep him cuffed if that’s what you want,” she teased, eyebrows jumping up in suggestion. 

“Isabel.”  Her name was very much said as a warning.

“Right.  Fine.  You’re no fun.”  She moved behind Eren, and he heard the jingling of keys.

“I forwarded all the calls coming from the security office lines to me and acted like I was emergency.”

“Lalala!  I can’t hear this!” Isabel said as the first cuff unclicked.  Eren wasn’t sure what the penalty was for impersonating emergency services, but it was definitely not something he would casually admit in front of an officer.

“So then I called Isabel up and had her show up in a squad car,” Levi continued as if he had never been interrupted.

“You’re lucky I happened to be on duty tonight otherwise there would have been no squad car.  Levi, I don’t need to know what you’re doing, frankly, I don’t want to-”

“If it makes you feel better.  He’s wrongly accused.  He didn’t do what they said he did.”

She paused, considering.  “It does a little bit.”

“What exactly did they say I do?”

“Someone in R&D accused you of stealing equipment from one of the labs.”

“What?  I didn’t do that.”

There was the clinking of metal as Isabel reattached her cuffs to her belt, then she drew their attention by talking.

“Listen, I need to get back on patrol.  It was nice to meet you.  We’ll all do lunch sometime.  Levi, you owe me.”

They watched her get back into her squad car and reverse out of the lot. 

“You’re shaking.”

“I am?” Eren said, raising his hands up to his face.  They were trembling.  Suddenly his eyes started to feel warm, and he took a deep breath, trying to prevent tears from welling up.  He was a grown, very manly man who was not about to start sobbing like a child in a dark, empty murder-lot.  He heard Levi let out a sigh, but didn’t dare look at him until he got himself under control. 

He felt a hand land solidly on his back and awkwardly pat him, which maybe should have made him feel worse, but instead he found himself giggling.  It probably sounded hysterical and a part of him was aware that Levi was more than likely thinking he had lost his mind, but the hand didn’t leave his back.  After a minute, he got himself under control, the awful threat of tears gone, but the trembles a little worse.  A couple of deep shuddering breathes and he turned around to face the shorter man.

“You all right?”

“Better than I was.  Let’s get out of here.”

“Okay.”

They climbed into the car, buckling their seatbelts.

“Dinner’s still on the table, if you’re interested.  We can celebrate you quitting your janitor job.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.  I don’t think I should ever go back there after tonight.  Ever.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“You pick.  I don’t know if I even have an appetite yet.”

Levi hummed to himself, thinking.

“Chinese takeout?”

“Sure,” Eren agreed, wondering if he’d be able to keep food down at the moment and how bad Chinese would be coming back up. 

-

Eren found himself sitting next to Levi with a box of vegetable beef noodles between his knees.  They were on the hood of Levi’s car and parked in front of an empty playground.  The nearest streetlight didn’t quite reach them, so they had to rely on the ambient glow from the city around them to illuminate their meal.

“It’s probably not a coincidence that both my program went live and you got pulled in by security today,” Levi said, swirling his sticks around his box, but not using them to gather any food.

“There was a guy that was freaking out in R&D about a half hour or so before the security guard came.”

“Oh?”

“He swore a few times, then ran out of the office.”

“Maybe he found my code…” Levi said, frowning down into his food, as if it could provide the answer.

“Why would that guy turn me in if all he did was find it?  He had no reason to think I had anything to do with it.”

“Unless it tripped something else.  I’ll have to look for that tomorrow when I go over all the data it pulled.”

“What could it have tripped?”

Levi looked turned away from his dinner and looked at him, hard. 

“Maybe there’s two things going on here.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re right, the guy had no reason to suspect you of anything.  Which means you were his fall guy.  We need to find him.”

“Fall guy for what?”

“For whatever he was doing that he shouldn’t have been.”

Eren thought about it as he took another bite, chewing.  After a moment he spoke, “You think he was involved with stealing Hange’s work?”

“Who knows, but innocent people don’t wildly accuse others for no reason.  Either he knows the system’s been hacked and seems to think he’d somehow be blamed, hence accusing you of wrongdoing to remove said blame… or he saw that lab equipment has gone missing that he’s responsible for or stole himself, again, accusing you to remove said blame.”

“We have no idea, which, though.”

“We’ll figure it out.  We’ll find out who he is and we’ll see if we can turn this to our advantage.  This might be the break we were looking for.”

-

Levi walked Eren to the front of his apartment building, having been surreptitiously watching him ever since Isabel had delivered the intern to his care.  It had been a close call, and if he hadn’t been fearing the worst and expecting the security guard to phone out to the police, he might not have been quick enough to intercept it.  The few extra seconds it took to dial an outside line of A&P’s building was a saving grace.

Eren had stopped shaking by the time he had finished eating, but the full weight of the close call likely hadn’t hit either one of them yet.

The younger man had been more withdrawn other than their brainstorming session on the hood of the car.  Even now, his eyes were on the ground in front of his feet instead of the easy conversation Levi had grown used to.

They stopped in front of the main door, Eren pulling out his keyring to find the building key.

He fumbled with the ring for a moment, shuffling through the keys until he had the square one and shoved it in the lock. 

“You going to be okay?” Levi asked again, even though he knew the answer was both a yes and a no.

“Hmm?  Yeah.  I just need to get some sleep, you know, if I can.”

Levi nodded as much to convey sympathy as agreement.  Eren turned to him, and he noticed a tension in the younger man’s shoulders as he appeared to hesitate for a moment.

In an instant, before Levi could react, Eren had made a quick step towards him and grabbed him in a brief, tight hug.  It was a breath or two of warmth and the faint scent of cologne and then Eren moved back, giving him an awkward pat to his shoulder in an unintentional mimicry of Levi’s earlier attempts at comfort that evening.

“Thanks, again,” he coughed out embarrassed, turning hastily away to twist the key in the lock and open the door.

“You’re welcome,” Levi replied automatically, body temporarily frozen, brain short-circuiting as he watched Eren duck inside and practically run to the elevator. 

It took a moment for Levi to realize he was staring through the glass of the door like a lovesick idiot, immensely thankful that Eren was too busy avoiding looking back at the entryway to see. 

Clearly, his secret boyfriend had decided they were going to get serious about their pretend relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been waiting forever to reveal Isabel as a cop. I have more or less had this planned since around chapter 3 or 4. I'm also estimating this story to be more than halfway done based on the plot points I had wanted to hit.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to be traveling for about three weeks in July and it is unclear yet what my internet situation will be, so I figured I better hurry up and post this. I'm also not sure how much writing I'll be doing while traveling since some of it will be for work and it'll be in a tropical locale... 
> 
> I may be busy in the evenings. 
> 
> On a beach.

Eren grinned widely as he waved and greeted the little blonde receptionist, Historia, on his way into the office.  She returned the greeting, then put her fingers in the shape of a gun to her head as she reached to answer her ringing phone, earning a snort of amusement from him.  He continued down the hall, swiping his key card and sliding through the door.  One of the first desks was already occupied by another small blonde, although arguably more refined.

“Morning Annie,” Eren said, placing a cup from his coffee carrier in front of her and leaning against the cubicle wall.

“What’s this?” she asked, raising a brow at him.

“Black coffee, light on sweetener.”

“Good memory,” she said with her slight little Annie-smile.  Almost delicately, she picked the cup up and took a small sip from it, judging its flavor thoughtfully.  She swallowed and brought the cup back down to cradle it in her lap, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She looked back up at him and Eren was momentarily caught in her gaze.  Annie had eyes like an aquamarine gemstone, pale blue and hard.  Right now, though, they were softened by the hint of a smile.  It suited her.

“I understand congratulations are in order.  There was a bit of commotion yesterday when the feed started.”

“Thanks.  I heard Jean had some excitement.  What are we doing today, then?  Sifting through the information?”

“I would assume.  We need to sort through the research and development stuff they had to find Hange’s work.”

“Sounds tedious.  I could use some tedious,” Eren smiled at her.

“I think you’ll get as much as you can stand,” she countered, smirking back up at him. 

“That’s why we have fancy coffee today.”

He lifted the coffee carrier as if it proved his point and then pushed away from the cubicle wall to walk further into the office.  Petra and Levi were already at their desks, and Erd’s jacket was hanging off the back of his chair across the aisle.  The rest of the office would slowly filter in over the next half hour.

Eren stole Gunther’s chair and wheeled it over next to Levi, whose dark eyes were on him, watching.

“I got you a coffee.  Petra, do you want one?”

Her red head popped into view from behind her monitor and her gaze fell on the carrier greedily.

“You’re my favorite intern.  At least for today.”

“You mean always,” Eren said, handing a lidded cup over.  He set the third one in front of Levi and took the last for himself. 

“We’ll see.  Thanks though, I have a meeting I need to get to and this saves me a trip to the coffee shop downstairs.”  She smiled pleasantly as she finished inserting a sheaf of papers into a folder, grabbed a notebook, and hustled away.

Eren took the seat he procured for himself, settling comfortably and maneuvering a little closer.  As usual, Levi’s desk was immaculately structured, binders precisely in line, ingoing and outgoing documents perfectly stacked, and not a speck of dust to be found.  He knew, because he surreptitiously looked every time he came over.

“Thanks, I need this,” Levi mumbled.  Eren abandoned his inspection of cleanliness to look at the man.  While he was as professionally dressed and groomed as he was typically, he had dark smudges under his eyes and his skin looked a little drawn.

“Did you not go to bed last night?”  He felt a little guilty.  Levi had done nothing but look after him since his fake internship had started. 

“Izzy made me cook her dinner after her patrol was over.  She didn’t leave until two am.  Wants to know if you’re single.”

“If _I’m_ single?  I am, but she’s not exactly… my type,” Eren finished lamely.  On a very fundamental level, no woman was.  Not exactly a conversation for the office, though.  

“You’re not hers either, she’s just a shameless flirt.”

“Right.  So, can I buy you lunch today?  As thanks.”

Levi gave an almost smile, probably unaware of how sleepy it made him look.  “Part of my job was to keep you out of lockup, so don’t worry about it.  Besides, with the amount of shit we have to comb through, I’ll be working through lunch.”

Breaking the law wasn’t part of Levi’s job -well, _it was_ , but Erwin had made it clear that if any of the three interns got caught, they were on their own. 

“Then I’ll get something to go and bring it back.”

“Fine.  I’m too tired to try and argue with you.  You should get Leonhardt over here.  We’ll divvy up the work and get started.”

-

They started by relocating to the office’s meeting room so they could spread out around the large table there.  Levi had procured laptops and they set up what Eren jokingly called their command center.  Each laptop was setup to access the database that Levi’s program dumped information into so they could each run their own individual searches and comb through files more expeditiously.

Annie had begun compiling a list late in the day before of e-mails and documents that could potentially be referencing Hange’s research and they continued from there.  The three worked through the morning, inputting keywords and shifting through the results for anything suspicious.

Since Hange’s research was focused around power generation and cells, it was easier to narrow down probable keyword searches.  Unfortunately, since A&P, like Klorva, was a company focused on developing the newest technologies for both commercial and industrial uses, they found themselves being swamped digging through thousands of projects.  The A&P complex where Eren had his stint as a janitor was just one facility where research occurred.  It was, however, also the headquarters of research and development for the entire corporation, and so all projects under the A&P umbrella would eventually pass through that office.

At lunchtime, Eren ducked out of the office to grab food for them.  Annie had just left for a bathroom break when he returned, a bag on one arm and his second drink carrier of the day balanced on the other.  When he reached Levi, he carefully set the carrier down on the table next to him. 

“I got sandwiches.  This one’s yours,” Eren said, handing one to Levi from the bag he was carrying.

“What kind is it?”

“A hero.  You know, because you are what you eat.”

There was a moment of silence where Levi just _looked_ at Eren.

“How long have you been planning on making that joke?”

“Since I saw it on the menu twenty minutes ago,” Eren said.  He appeared to be completely unapologetic.  Worse, he looked smug.  Like he had accomplished something worth being proud of. 

“Is this how it’s going to be now?  You making awful jokes all the time?  I’m starting to think you’re really just a giant dork.”  Not that Levi minded.  If anything, it made the intern easier to talk to, made him seem more human and less like some sort of gorgeous underwear model that had found an inexpensive suit and wandered into the office by accident.

“Not possible.  I’m the coolest guy I know.”  Less and less like a suave underwear model with each word.

“I’m seriously thinking about throwing this sandwich in the trash right now.  You’re lucky I’m hungry,” Levi said, trying to sound stern, but he was afraid it came out more amused than anything.

He was not above basking in a little hero worship.  Not when it came from someone who was so obviously appreciative and who had such well-toned arms.  He obviously spent time lifting.

“Where’s Annie?” Eren asked as he finished unpacking the items, tossing a bag of chips at Levi, who caught it despite having lost himself for a moment in a daydream.

“Right here,” the blonde woman answered from behind Eren and he spun around with a sandwich in hand. 

“Club sandwich or Cuban?”

“Mmm.  Tough choice...  I’ll think I’ll take the Cuban.”

They settled back into their chairs and Levi was about to start entering the next keyword, when Annie interrupted him.

“I was thinking we should take a look at payroll.  You want to narrow down your searches by who is in the R&D department, then accounting should have their pay rosters organized by department.”

Levi and Eren turned to look at her, eyes wide.

“I should have thought of that,” Levi said, as much to himself as anyone.  If they had a complete list of names, they had a much better chance of pinpointing any possible reference to Hange’s stolen work.

“I didn’t until I walked away for a few minutes,” she shrugged.

“I think you just saved us a lot of time,” Eren said, giving her a quick grin before turning his attention to his screen and absently grabbing for a chip from his open bag.

-

An hour had passed when Levi’s phone went off with a text message alert.  Eren’s and Annie’s attention snapped to the phone, surprised, and they watched the older man blink at it for a moment as if he had forgotten what it was.  To be fair, it had been a little startling among the soft noises of typing and paper shuffling.  Especially since the notification sound had been a horse neighing. The man picked it up, read whatever it was, typed out a reply, and the peace resumed. 

Eren turned his eyes back to the screen in front of him and for a minute, was able to focus back on systematically going through the list of files his search had pulled up.  Then Levi’s phone neighed again.  What followed was a fairly short exchange of messages with Levi’s phone calling out to anything equine within range until Annie and Eren were both staring.

Gray eyes slid over to Eren’s.

“Go meet Kirstein at the smoker’s pavilion and have him brief you on what happened down in Logistics yesterday.”

“Is your ringtone for Jean a horse neighing?” Eren blurted, unable to move his mind past it.

“What of it?” Levi challenged.  Eren glanced to his side at Annie, who was trying her hardest not to look amused, failing more so when she caught Eren’s eye and a small smile darted across her face.  Eren turned back to face Levi.

“What’s my notification sound?”  He knew when to ask the important questions.

Dark eyebrows pulled down over the man’s eyes and he nonchalantly thumbed the switch on the side that would place the phone on vibrate. 

“Can’t recall.”  He was clearly lying.

Eren could feel his own eyebrows raise in response.  Now he was curious.  He obviously had one unique to him in the same way that Jean did and more than likely, Annie.  Did he have his own ringtone, too?  He might have to try calling and texting Levi spontaneously while sitting next to him, from now on.

Levi returned his stare levelly.  It was apparent Eren wasn’t going to get anything out of the impassive brick wall the man had turned into.

Retreat, regroup, and plan for the next attack.  He’d let it go for now, lull Levi into a false sense of security.

“Right.  Where’s the pavilion?” 

-

Jean sidled into the break area about half a minute after Eren did, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and holding it out to Eren.  The pavilion was empty, save the two of them.  Enough past noon that no one was having a post-lunch smoke but early enough that it wasn’t time for a midafternoon one, either.

“No thanks.”

“You gotta do it man,” Jean insisted. “If anyone else shows up, they’ll wonder why you’re here.”

“Can’t stand the smell,” Eren refused, wrinkling his nose at the pack, “I didn’t realize you smoke.”

“Just recently…” he said, not sounding particularly pleased about, then as if struck by a sense of irony, added, “It’s funny, the whole reason I’m even doing all this is because A&P poisoned a bunch of people and now here I am putting who knows what in my lungs.”

Jean had leaned back against the wall of the pavilion by the end of his impromptu confession, apparently feeling melancholic, now.  He was staring off towards the small manmade pond that had strategically been positioned on the side of the building with the most executive offices and meeting rooms.  There were a few trees that had been aesthetically planted along a woodchip path that circled the pond and was there for looks more than actual use.  Although, Jean had seen a couple of employees here and there on it that were trying to get their steps in during their breaks.

“They poisoned people?” Eren asked, incredulous. 

Jean glanced back at him, looking like he hadn’t really planned to say more.  His eyes roamed over Eren’s face for a few seconds until he resigned himself and continued, sounding tired as if this were an old hurt, anger long faded.

“A&P had a factory near my hometown.  They had these pits where they dumped their waste, but they didn’t line them properly.  You’re supposed to do that so chemicals don’t leak into the groundwater, I guess it’s a huge issue in the mining industry,” Jean shrugged at the last part, removing a cigarette from his pack and lighting it. 

The taller man watched the trail of smoke rise up in the air, dissipating near the ceiling.  After a moment, he sighed and continued.

“Well, that’s exactly what happened.  Groundwater got contaminated and next thing you know, everyone in town started getting sick.  Real sick, but we didn’t know what was happening at first.  Some of those chemicals don’t just leave your system, either.  They stay there for a long time.  I got lucky, my dad delivers those big jugs of water for a living, the kind that go into water coolers, so we had one of those at home since he got a really good discount.  We didn’t drink the tap water.  My buddy Marco, though, he got hospitalized.  He was going to play university football, but those chemicals made him so weak he could hardly run.”

It was silent for a moment while Jean kept looking at the pond while taking drags from his cigarette.  He watched a woman power walk without really seeing her, his face telling Eren that the other man wasn’t really in the present.

“So then what?” Eren asked, eyes wider than he probably realized.  Jean seemed startled by the question, lost in his own head.

“Huh?  Oh, since they said it would take years to clean up the mess, they moved the town.  Ridiculous.  Marco coaches now instead of playing and here I am, lighting up cigarettes.  They taste like hell, by the way.”

“You should have tried that vaping thing.  It’d probably be less gross for you.”  It wasn’t quite the response Jean had been expecting after he had just bared a bit of his soul, if his open surprise was any indication, but it was the first thing Eren thought of.

Jean’s expression morphed into something a little broken and a little shocked, mouth falling open just slightly as his brain kicked over.

“I hadn’t thought of that.”  

Whatever somber spell had been coating the air between them broke and Eren didn’t bother to hide his snigger. 

After a moment of enjoying Jean’s look of consternation, he prompted, “So I heard the gist of what happened yesterday…”

It was enough to snap the tall man into a better mood and Jean quickly related the events of what happened from the time he got Levi’s call, to running into the two girls and having to detour to take refuge in the bathroom, to making it to Rico’s office only to find it empty and completely undisturbed.

“Long story short, two cute girls think I had diarrhea.  Well, one cute girl and a girl that looks like she could rough me up in a dark alley.  Which, actually isn't a turn off.  I think I could stand a little manhandling,” Jean mused.  
  
“So you're going out of your way to tell me you want to be manhandled.  Jean, just because I'm gay doesn't mean I don't have standards.”  
  
“What?  No, that's not what I meant, you jackass,” Jean said, halfheartedly smacking Eren’s shoulder, “But even if it were, I'm definitely up to your standards, Jaeger.  I'm Grade-A, choice meat,” He finished smugly.  
  
“Shut up, idiot.”  Eren was still entirely too amused at the diarrhea part, so his words completely lacked any malice.

“Actually, though,” Jean continued once Eren had settled down, “the one girl was the receptionist from upstairs.  The blonde girl outside of Operations.  I don’t know what she’d be doing down in Logistics.”

“Historia?” Eren asked, surprised.

She had always been pleasant to him when he greeted her in the mornings, well, she had been herself, anyway.  He had stopped to chat with her several times on his way in, quickly liking her because of her hidden snark that seemed so out of place with such an angelic face.  She had a surprisingly acerbic manner when no one else was around for her to play the friendly receptionist.

“Is that her name?” Jean asked, not sounding particularly concerned.

Eren frowned.  That was probably something worth reporting to Levi.  It could easily be nothing, after all, Jean had mentioned the taller woman that had been with Historia worked in Logistics.  They could have met a thousand different ways working at the same company and became friends.  Historia could have been around to gossip or catch up or something on her break.

Or not.

“I guess it might be worth keeping an eye out for her,” Eren said, feeling a little heavier in his stomach.  

-

When Eren returned, he reported to Levi what Jean had told him about seeing Historia on his way to Rico’s office.  Levi frowned for a moment.  Annie had looked up from her work to watch quietly, apparently interested to hear his verdict.

“Nothing we can do until the next e-mail goes out.”

Which was enough to temporarily settle the matter.

By the end of the day, they had what they surmised to be a complete list of names of everyone who worked in the main Research and Development department at A&P.  Tomorrow, they would be able to search through e-mails and documents using that list.  They were packing up for the day, Levi gathering all their hard copies to lock up in Erwin’s office safe for the night, Eren wrapping up the laptop cords, and Annie shredding all their scraps over by the copy machine. 

Levi had all their folders and documents neatly stacked when Eren stepped over to him, wrapping a cord around an adapter. 

“Say Levi,” he said, leaning too close and voice unreasonably low to the point that it sent little jolts skittering down from Levi’s ear all the way to his toes.  “Can I take you out for dinner, tonight?”

His heart stopped.

His lungs, too. 

In fact, when he tried to assess all the critical shut downs of his body, he discovered his brain was also completely incapacitated. 

He should probably answer, but he didn’t trust his voice not to come out squeaking.  He didn’t know if his voice could squeak, but it was best not to find out.  Instead, he turned his head and raised an eyebrow, hoping his face didn’t flush red.    

“As thanks for last night and everything else,” Eren explained, finishing with the smile of a teen idol.  This sounded and felt a lot like being asked out on a date.  He should probably play it cool and not throw Eren passionately down on the meeting room table.  Mostly because the office was far from empty and if he was reading things wrong because his lonely little heart had given in to delusion, then things would probably get a bit awkward.

“You don’t owe me anything.”  Oh, thank heaven, his voice was steady.  Relief flooded cool through his system, stamping out any threatening blush.

“I’ll pick you up at six thirty.”

“You don’t listen well, do you?” _Why_ was he trying to protest?  He needed to shut his mouth.  His mouth was saying inappropriate words.

“Not at all.”  There was that smile again, devilish and self-satisfied and Levi frowned, because he was weak against it.  Eren moved away just as Annie came back in the room, looking around for what else needed to be done.  They finished up quickly and Levi kept stealing glances at Eren until they were gathering their suit jackets and bags for the day.

Levi was just about to follow Eren and Annie out of the office when Hange grabbed his arm and jerked him backwards.

“So, a little birdie told me you have a hot date tonight.”

 _How_?  How could she have possibly known that?  He narrowed his eyes at her.  “You were eavesdropping outside the door.”  He wasn’t asking.

“Not my fault,” she said, throwing her hands up in front of her in pacification, “I was just on my way to refill my coffee and I happened to overhear the details of your illicit affair.”

“It is not _illicit_.”

“Ha!  So, there _is_ something!”  Her finger was stabbing him in the chest, and he realized that the problem with correcting Hange was that there were usually so many things wrong with what she said that you really couldn’t pick just one without her capitalizing on the rest.

“No, he’s just happy he’s not in jail.”

“Who isn’t?  Other than the other inmates.  He would have been _so_ popular with them.”

Levi was not going to touch that one. 

“Goodnight Hange,” he asserted, taking a step back from her.

“Wait, at least tell me I can be your Maid of Honor.  Or Best Man.  I’m flexible.” 

He gave her a flat look.  She was completely unfazed and grinning like the lunatic she was.

“I thought you wouldn’t tease me about this.”  He could clearly recall her saying that.  It wasn’t his imagination.

“I don’t know.  I’m a liar.  Don’t listen to anything I say,” she waved him off, unapologetic.

“I don’t.”

He dug his phone out of his pocket and checked the time.  If he wanted to drive home, shower, freak out, agonize over how casually he should dress, and freak out some more before Eren picked him up, he had to hurry up and leave.

“I have to go.  Night,” he reiterated, and spun on his heel before she could come up with anything more idiotic to say.

He didn’t quite make it before she called after him, “I’m going to need every torrid little detail tomorrow!  Just come right to my office!”

He was out the door in a flash after that, anxious to leave the building before he was waylaid by anything else.

Once he was in his car, a stupid grin spread across his face. 

He was reasonably certain he had a date.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hadn't really expected to reveal Jean's backstory/motivation quite yet, since his was the one I struggled with pinning down the most. Also, this story has officially reached the length of a novel.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PWP stands for pining with plot, right? There's not anything else that it could possibly be an acronym for...

Levi eyed the contents of his closet as though he were personally offended by them.  It wasn’t too late to pick up the phone and call to see where they were going for dinner.  Or text.  Texting was preferable because he didn’t have to worry about his mouth saying stupid stuff.

If he texted would that look like he was a little too interested in this dinner?  It was reasonable to want to know if the venue had a dress code…

As soon as Levi thought that, he realized that Eren would not take him anywhere fancy, because Eren was simply not that classy.  Unfairly attractive, yes, but refined and debonair, not so much.  It was part of his appeal, Levi felt.

Relieved to have puzzled through what really should not have been the most mentally strenuous part of his day, he settled on a casual button-down shirt over a short sleeve tee and a pair of jeans.  By the time he was finished dressing, he was left with twenty minutes for Eren to show up.

Twenty minutes to aimlessly wander around his house…

…and hyperventilate in the kitchen.  Maybe squeal into a throw pillow from the living room couch. 

He was warily eyeing one of those pillows when he heard his doorbell and nearly jumped out of his skin. 

Deep breath, time to play it cool because there was a ridiculously hot guy on the other side of his front door. 

He fumbled his keys off the hook by the entrance, double checked that he had his phone and wallet and opened his front door.

Eren smiled a bit devilishly at him, hands in his front pockets.  He was wearing a dark green Henley, both buttons undone at the top so that Levi could catch a glimpse of collar bone as Eren shifted in front of him.

“Hey, ready to go?”

Levi nodded, vocal abilities of any sort were beyond him until he could properly process all the outlines on display before him, because Eren was wearing a _nicely_ fitted shirt and he had been about to leave his house without shoes.  It had only been a brief half start out the door that he _knew_ Eren caught because, one, it was right in front of his face and, two, that smile stretched even wider when it happened. 

Levi quickly retreated a couple of steps inside his door, grunted, “Shoes,” and toed on a pair while Eren tried to snicker discreetly into his hand.

Playing it cool had already failed and he had yet to make it out his front door.   

He was half expecting to fall on his face before he made it to the car at this rate and didn’t take a comfortable breath until he was in the seat and buckling himself in.

“All right, where are we going?” Levi asked as Eren turned the key and the engine stumbled on at the same time they were both nearly deafened by the radio.  Quickly, Eren’s hand shot to fumble with the knob looking more panicked than Levi had ever seen him.  Considering he had seen the younger man in plenty of other situations that were worthier of being panic-inducing, it particularly struck him.

He didn’t bother to hold back the laughter that bubbled out unexpectedly.

“Sorry,” Eren muttered, sheepishly, once he got the volume under control.  The younger man turned his attention to backing out of the driveway and getting them on the road.  A car commercial was ending on the radio to be replaced by the opening guitar riffs of Van Halen, and Levi realized Eren had been blasting classic rock on his way over.

He wondered what song had been worthy of skyrocketing the volume.

Rather than stare creepily at Eren’s face or his defined torso, Levi forced his eyes to look out the window and try to guess where it was Eren could have decided to take him.  They were driving towards the downtown area, so it was potentially the bar scene, not that their small city had developed much of a nightlife.

Eren pulled into a corner parking garage that Levi knew was in walking distance of a dance club popular with the local college kids.  It was somewhere he generally avoided not just because he was certain the alley alongside it was restocked with vomit on a nightly basis.  He had also been thrown out the last time he had been there a few years ago for a fist fight that he hadn’t started, but he decided to finish.  It kind of soured the experience.

Fortunately, that was not where Eren led him.  Instead, Eren brought him somewhere that was conceivably worse.

An adult arcade.

When Eren jogged a few steps to open the door and gesture Levi inside, he was grinning like an idiot.  A stupid, pretty, idiot.

“Don’t worry, I brought extra wipes and hand sanitizer.”

If that didn’t make warmth shoot him straight in the center of the chest to form a viscous goo of sloppy feelings… yuck.

The place wasn’t terribly busy, probably because it was a weeknight.  The hostess was able to get them a table right away and with drinks on the way, they focused on their menus.  Levi was glad he had ruled out a classy venue, and therefore the associated dress code.

He would have felt like an idiot wearing a suit here.

When the waitress came by to take their orders, Eren got a cup of tokens too.  His expression was as much predatory as challenging.  It did unfair things to Levi.

“Want to race?”

So did that tone of voice, it turned out.

-

Eren had a pinched expression on his face, squinting at the screen and mouth puckered like he had just sucked on something sour, head tilted slightly as he turned that expression on Levi.

“How?” he asked, sounding suspicious, accusing, and disbelieving all in one syllable. 

Levi looked back at him coolly, desperately trying to keep the smirk that wanted to grow on his face carefully in check.

“How what?” he asked, as if he were completely unaware of what Eren was getting at.

Obviously, the younger man wasn’t buying it, judging by the way his expression intensified into a flat stare, which was markedly more attractive than the sour-lemon expression, but that one had been endearing in its own way. 

“How does anyone get one hundred percent accuracy?”

“By aiming.”

Eren’s mouth did an odd twitching thing and his eyes narrowed more.

“Bullshit.  No one gets higher than like, sixty or sixty five percent in these games.  You did some sort of hacking mojo.” 

“Because that wouldn’t be a waste of my time, somehow secretly hacking code in front of you to cheat at arcade games.  Or were you thinking I did an up up, down down, let right, left right, B A start?”

There was a beat of silence where Eren looked like he was considering calling him out for the Contra cheat code.

Levi turned back towards the screen before speaking again, “Maybe you should try something other than a spastic spray of bullets every time something twitches on screen.”

“They’re zombies, Levi.  You don’t hesitate with zombies.”

“You killed all the civilians.”

“Did you not pay attention to the intro?  You don’t hide in a storage facility swarming with zombies for forty-eight hours and not get infected.  They had zombie virus incubating in their systems, we rescue them, and we kill the rest of the population by taking them out of the quarantine zone.”

This time, Levi couldn’t help the choked laugh that escaped him.

It was enough to crack Eren’s expression into a grin as he tried and failed to play serious.

“You’re too into this game.”

Eren’s lips spread wider as he holstered the plastic gun that acted as a game controller.

“If there’s a zombie outbreak, you’ll be grateful I’m there to make the hard calls.”

“ _You’ll_ be grateful I’m there to kill the actual zombies while you murder what’s left of the civilian population,” Levi countered, slipping his own gun-shaped controller back into the slot.

Since they were apparently going to have an epic team up during the zombie apocalypse.  Levi wondered if that was Eren’s idea of romance or bromance. 

“Poh-ta-to, po-tah-to.”

Levi holstered the plastic gun-controller and turned back to Eren.

“That it for tokens?”

Eren double-checked the cup at his feet they had kept their tokens in to confirm that yes, it was empty.  After their short meal break in which Eren had spent too much time cackling over purposefully knocking Levi off the track in every single racing game at every opportunity so that they both kept coming in last, it was agreed to try other genres.

There was enough distraction and dubiously friendly competition that Levi forgot to internally freak out over whether or not this was supposed to be a date or two friends hanging out. 

Even the second option made him feel kind of warm and fuzzy.  That was not good.  He was so monumentally screwed and not even in the sexy way.

When the bill had come and Levi had attempted to reach for his wallet, Eren’s hand on his forearm stopped him while the younger smiled cheekily and settled the balance.  He would have protested, but every cell in Levi’s brain was laser focused on the grip preventing his arm from moving.

The car ride back seemed shorter than the one there, but the day was starting to catch up with Levi and relative lack of sleep from the night before and he found himself getting steadily sleepier as they approached his house.  Eren had glanced over at him at one point, catching him mid-yawn and chuckled softly at him.  The somewhat less than four hours of sleep the night before were causing him to crash fast now that his stomach was full and he had stopped moving around.  The car was warm and quiet, soft music flowing from the speakers low enough to only give an impression of melody.

When Eren had pulled into his driveway and followed Levi out the car it didn’t really register until they found themselves at his front door. 

Levi’s tired fingers fumbled with his keys until Eren took them and inserted them in the lock for him.

“That was fun, we should do it again,” Eren said when he pulled back from the door to look at Levi.

There were vague warning bells that Levi was missing something vital.

“Sure,” Levi said, leaning against the frame of the door.  Eren quirked a quick smile at him that seemed less to do with his agreement and it occurred to him that he was probably being internally laughed at for his general exhaustion.

“Awesome…” Eren paused for a moment, looking at him as his lips flattened and just barely turn up at the edges.  It was a look Levi wasn’t sure how to interpret while they hovered around each other for a moment. 

It wasn’t until Eren’s gaze pinned his own that he realized that while the other man had been looking at him, he hadn’t been looking at his eyes.  The atmosphere shifted into something calmer as Eren’s shoulders relaxed and he raised his arm to lightly shove at Levi’s own shoulder.

“Get some sleep.  I’ll see you tomorrow,” the younger man said softly, fond and amused.

Levi nodded at him and reached out to turn the knob on his front door, pushing it open and mumbling out a ‘good night’ which was repeated and then Eren was walking back towards his car.

It wasn’t until Levi was brushing his teeth that he realized that Eren had probably been about to kiss him goodnight after their _date_. 

Maybe.

He thunked his head forward against his bathroom mirror, knowing it would smear and not caring.  He was so confused.  Was he reading things right or was it wishful thinking from his exhausted brain?

He mentally shelved the problem for some other time and fell into bed a few minutes later, asleep in moments.

-

“I’m very disappointed to see you’re not wearing yesterday’s clothes,” Hange admonished sternly.

Levi carefully shut the door of her office behind him, rolling his eyes.

“Against my better judgement, I need your advice.”

Her response was to laugh at him.

He couldn’t help but fell a little offended at that.

“Well, that’s a terrible idea,” she gasped out and tried not to laugh harder when Levi rolled his eyes at her while she attempted to settle down.

Finally, she was able to paste on a look of polite interest that might have been more believable if she wasn’t fighting the grin that kept ticking up the corners of her mouth.

It was as good as he was going to get.

“I think it _was_ a date.”  Fairly sure, like eighty-five percent sure.  Maybe seventy.  Well, sixty-four… he needed to stop thinking.

“Oh?” Hange asked, leaning forward hands gripping the armrest of her office chair too tightly for him to not be a little disturbed by her emotional investment in his shriveled love life. 

“It could have gone either way until he walked me to my door at the end,” he shrugged, attempting nonchalance and certain he was failing.

“If he kissed you good night and then followed you inside to your bedroom and you two had steamy hot sex and you want to know if that means he’s interested, the answer is yes.”

Levi gave her the flattest stare in his repertoire. 

It was entirely ineffective.

“No, that’s not what happened.”

“Then what did?” she burst out, throwing herself back into her chair with frustration.

“I think…” he paused, because saying it aloud gave it a new weight, “that he was going to kiss me.”

The glee on Hange’s face as she vibrated in her chair for a moment was less unsettling than he would have thought, probably because deep in his dark soul he was a six-year-old girl in a tutu that was on the same emotional level.

“Wait, wait, so does that make you the chaste maiden in this relationship?”

“You know that gay men have relationships where neither one is a woman?  That’s the defining point that makes it gay.”

“Details,” Hange said, waving his complaint away with a bat of her hand at the air. 

“No really,” he continued, purposefully taking Hange’s teasing jibe seriously to help distract the rising hope his confession was attempting to geyser up, “gay men are considered gay because we’re attracted to men.”

Hange snorted her amusement at him, allowing him the slight digression before her expression morphed into something decidedly more serious.

“Levi, as much as I love watching you twist yourself up over this whole thing, enough is enough.  You either ask him by the end of the day what’s up, or I will do it for you.  I won’t be gentle about, either.  Or private.”

It took Levi a second to realize she was not joking.  He could feel the blood drain out of his face and if he wasn’t pale enough to be mistaken for a corpse already, it probably would have showed.

“No.”

“Yes.”

They stared at each other for a moment longer before he stormed out of her office, slamming the door behind him. 

He stalked towards the meeting room, blowing past Petra on his way who went out of her way to avoid eye contact.  He began starting up his laptop and digging out the hard copy files to start another boring day of shifting through thousands of files and memos and linking pieces of information to each when the door eased open and quietly shut.

“Hey,” came a soft greeting that immediately sent electrical impulses racing down the skin on the back of Levi’s neck.  He snapped his gaze up to Eren, who was holding a bag of coffee that he must have brought from home and one of the smaller office air pots, freshly brewed that was still probably too much for three people.  He set them on the sideboard where the food for meetings was typically held.

“Petra said Hange pissed you off,” Eren said as he walked over, about as gentle as Levi had ever seen him, like he was in a room with wild animal.

“She does that,” Levi dismissed with a shrug.

“Hmmm, I’ll bet.” 

Then there was a hand on his forearm and he was caught in a green-eyed stare that looked like it was trying very hard to be comforting but was being overwhelmed with amusement.  His fake-boyfriend was an ass.

“Sympathetic isn’t really a mode you have, is it?”

“Sorry!” Eren said, both hands raising in front of himself placatingly, “You just usually don’t show what you’re thinking on your face, but right now you look like you’re about to murder a village.”

“Murderous rage is funny to you?”

“I’m not laughing,” Eren said too quickly, biting his bottom lip in a dead giveaway that he was trying very hard to keep any snickering strictly under wraps.

Levi automatically darted his gaze down to the younger man’s mouth and was a half-second away from pointing it out when last night at his front door flashed across his mind and he felt himself freeze.  It suddenly felt like someone had slapped up the temperature on the thermostat like they didn’t pay the heat bill.

He glanced back to Eren’s eyes, unable to gauge what the taller man was thinking, but his brows had lowered from the vague amusement of earlier and his lids were a fraction lower. 

Levi allowed himself a moment to hope he wasn’t wrong before he reached out to grip Eren’s collar next to his tie and drag him down wide-eyed.

He barely had enough time to register the warm press of mouths, the soft intake of air, and the faint taste of the morning’s first cup of coffee left on the bottom lip his tongue flicked across before he pulled away and waited.

Eren blinked at him for a moment and Levi tried to ignore the way his heart skittered like a rabbit’s.

Slowly, a self-satisfied smirk spread across Eren’s face. 

“I’m not complaining, but what prompted that?”

It wasn’t fair how breathless the younger man sounded while they were still standing in each other’s space.

“Tourette’s.”

Eren ducked his head as his smirk morphed into a grin and he let out something a little too high pitched to be a chuckle.  A second later he was glancing back up and moving closer again when the door opened behind them and they instinctively jumped apart.

Levi leaned around Eren to glare ominously at whomever thought now was a good time to go bursting through closed doors to find Hange.  He desperately need something to throw.

“Hey, uh, I just came to apologize,” and she looked sheepish for all of two seconds before a clinically insane delight overtook her features as she shut the door behind her, “and to tell you that I would really follow through on any threats however moot they may be at this point.”

“Hange…” he growled.  He was sure the village murdering look was back on his face.

“Right, right.  I just saw Annie go into the break room with her lunch bag, so maybe, you know, you two are standing really close.  Gosh, Eren, are you feeling feverish?  You’re all red.  I assume Levi just leaned in to check your temperature.  With his tongue.”  She didn’t take a breath amid all that rambling.

“Stop talking.”  The order was crisp, demanding and amazingly forceful enough for Hange’s mouth to snap shut despite herself.

“Right, I’ll just go… somewhere that isn’t here and do something that isn’t a coworker.”

Eren took a half step away and Levi could see the younger man raise his hand to his mouth in his peripheral but ignored it in favor of glaring Hange out of the room. 

When the door clicked shut again, it was with the knowledge that they had a few moments before Annie came in and Levi finally allowed himself to look at Eren again.

Despite the embarrassed flush fading from his face, Eren shot him a quick grin and a wink that shot through Levi down to his toes.

“We’ll continue this later,” Levi promised, feeling jittery and airy.  Eren nodded and walked over to start his own laptop up as Annie walked in with a quiet ‘good morning’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't where I was going to end this chapter, but it seemed appropriate. 
> 
> It also had a couple of re-writes and I had thought that they weren't going to get to this point yet, but I was wrong. The plot-driven part will have to wait for next time. I'm excited, because there's a scene I've been looking forward to writing without quite being sure how I was going to get there but I think I can finally get there in the next chapter.


End file.
